This table needed some bug fixes. In fact, the way the gameplay was on this table was pretty off, probably mostly because of the lack of a manual until just recently.
There was all sorts of issues with the targets as they were popping up all the time when they weren't supposed to. Then there was a bug when you hit 2 at the same time, including the center one.
All fixed.
The table needed some work. LTA made a few fixes, but I was interested in going further fixing the drops and maybe improving a few things.
So I asked if I could do a little mod work on it and he said fine.
With some people, it is that easy!
Anyhow, once again as I do with many allegedly "quick" projects I want to do, I have to keep going and going.
The table needed completely wiped out as it wasn't close to correct size.
After I did that, I just said screw it and started working in photoshop to get some better images and PF made.
Wasn't easy given the best PF shot I could find on the net was the one that was already in the table.
I had a pretty severe angled shot, but with some elbow grease and work, I thought this had more potential than the IPDB shot.
So I did my thing with it.
Table is completely resized and rebuilt, nothing leftover from the old table but part of the script and the backdrop (which I thought was pretty cool and pretty looking, so I didn't want to touch that).
I put to use many photoshop tools, corrected the angle, created a stripped PF, fixed the nasty glare on a big chunk of the table and plastics, made the PF look newer by patching up wear, filled in missing artwork (especially tough under the flippers as I had no idea and no reference with how to fill it in, but I managed to fill it in somehow to where people won't notice that are was filled in)....ect.
All PF, lights, and plastics are all from this one image. I did the bumper caps by hand as they are a bit different than the normal cap, and I needed a perfect round texture with those black rings that I could pull from a pic.
And the bumpers are reels, they are animated and light up hopefully just as the real ones do.
Then I was just going to make an improved regular VP table using VP objects. Then I noticed that the bumpers were hard to do well in VP and especially those damn triangular lane guides at the bottom are pretty much impossible to do correctly with VP objects.
Normally, I have other resources for tables, even if they aren't great, where I can pull of some parts and use them as decals, but I didn't even have that for this table as I had no good pics that were angled well enough or highres enough.
Thus, I was going to save this for a table that I had better resoruces for and was a little more committed to rather than a quick mod, but what the heck.
We now have our first baby hybrid!
That's right, this table uses models from FP as decals. I remade part of the table quickly in FP just to get dimensions, ratio, and models to render correctly. Then I got the view to somewhat match the VP table and started snapping screenshots.
Then I started putting my good old decal skills back to work.
Actually, most objects you see right now (I know I have more work to do) is NOT a VP object.
The rails, flippers, and drops obviously are (and of course the PF and parts of the plastics, as that stuff is going to render 1024x max no matter what anyhow). I could replace those but VP does well enough with simple rails and drop targets, there is no need to get too fancy. But who knows, maybe I will!
If you look closely around the somewhat hidden kickers, you can even see FP metal with real reflection textures I made with a post behind it, all from FP. Very small detail, but I love wasting time on that junk.
Still work to do. I've never liked how VP did standups, and again since I don't have good pics for AH to work with, those will be FP as well, even animated with the proper bulb fixtures and lighting behind them.
I'm working on those right now.
The lights are all done, layout is done, PF and plastics are done.
What's left?
I mentioned the upper target/bulb fixtures I'm working on.
I need to add decals for the upper plunger lane wire guide and the flipper wire guides. That shouldn't be too difficult.
Oh, and I need to add a whole bunch of those rollover triggers, which I actually have done but they aren't in this screen. I just need to make another frame for them, they will be animated.
So...the table is pretty much done and ready to go after that.
I do plan to replace the apron and get some cards on there (thanks to inkonc..Peter for recreating the cards off the images I was able to pull off the pic, they look 100x better).
This apron is OK, but I think I have something to make a better one.
Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the results. I guess its not bad for a quick fixer-upper mod without any good resources, but finally all the work with sub par images is starting to pay off for me as I can do these types of things, HGT for FP was something that really helped me learn how to fix up images more than anything else and I couldn't be happier with how that worked out, considering. FP demands much bigger and cleaner images if you want to compete with those tables that do have great resources to use. You have to find a way to "git r' done".
Wonder how people will feel about a table that mixes FP and VP?
Well, it shouldn't matter. I just do whatever I can to make a good table. This isn't something I would call a masterpiece, its just a quick mod (like the many others I can't release, except this one I can!) that uses an interesting idea, although I definitely worked on more than I first intended to. Concept is old, just has a new twist!
I thank LTA for letting me have at it and get the drops working correctly (which was quite tricky, maybe because I'm not a coding genious, I am quite capable, but this table is unique with its drops and the way they operate, vpm didn't want to use the solenoids as they were apparently supposed to be used, but although rigged a bit everything is working and not buggy). Also thank him for his work on the table and nico and vpmx for their prior work.
They did a great job considering the lack of manual and images for the table.
I just gave it a 2006 overhaul despite any better images, but photoshop has also improved over the years! And thanks to the new info's, especially the insight from joke0, who has played the table, we got this thing playing accurately as well.
I also managed to find/figure out the 4 lightbox lights (HGTD, game over, tilt, and shoot again) that were missing from the prior version. Couldn't find lamp #'s for these in the manual, just a little trial and error found it all.
It still looks a little rough around the edges, but once I fill in the top, triggers, and lanes with reels and decals as well as get a better apron in there, I think it will make for a much better screen.
But for now...
There was all sorts of issues with the targets as they were popping up all the time when they weren't supposed to. Then there was a bug when you hit 2 at the same time, including the center one.
All fixed.
The table needed some work. LTA made a few fixes, but I was interested in going further fixing the drops and maybe improving a few things.
So I asked if I could do a little mod work on it and he said fine.
With some people, it is that easy!
Anyhow, once again as I do with many allegedly "quick" projects I want to do, I have to keep going and going.
The table needed completely wiped out as it wasn't close to correct size.
After I did that, I just said screw it and started working in photoshop to get some better images and PF made.
Wasn't easy given the best PF shot I could find on the net was the one that was already in the table.
I had a pretty severe angled shot, but with some elbow grease and work, I thought this had more potential than the IPDB shot.
So I did my thing with it.
Table is completely resized and rebuilt, nothing leftover from the old table but part of the script and the backdrop (which I thought was pretty cool and pretty looking, so I didn't want to touch that).
I put to use many photoshop tools, corrected the angle, created a stripped PF, fixed the nasty glare on a big chunk of the table and plastics, made the PF look newer by patching up wear, filled in missing artwork (especially tough under the flippers as I had no idea and no reference with how to fill it in, but I managed to fill it in somehow to where people won't notice that are was filled in)....ect.
All PF, lights, and plastics are all from this one image. I did the bumper caps by hand as they are a bit different than the normal cap, and I needed a perfect round texture with those black rings that I could pull from a pic.
And the bumpers are reels, they are animated and light up hopefully just as the real ones do.
Then I was just going to make an improved regular VP table using VP objects. Then I noticed that the bumpers were hard to do well in VP and especially those damn triangular lane guides at the bottom are pretty much impossible to do correctly with VP objects.
Normally, I have other resources for tables, even if they aren't great, where I can pull of some parts and use them as decals, but I didn't even have that for this table as I had no good pics that were angled well enough or highres enough.
Thus, I was going to save this for a table that I had better resoruces for and was a little more committed to rather than a quick mod, but what the heck.
We now have our first baby hybrid!
That's right, this table uses models from FP as decals. I remade part of the table quickly in FP just to get dimensions, ratio, and models to render correctly. Then I got the view to somewhat match the VP table and started snapping screenshots.
Then I started putting my good old decal skills back to work.
Actually, most objects you see right now (I know I have more work to do) is NOT a VP object.
The rails, flippers, and drops obviously are (and of course the PF and parts of the plastics, as that stuff is going to render 1024x max no matter what anyhow). I could replace those but VP does well enough with simple rails and drop targets, there is no need to get too fancy. But who knows, maybe I will!
If you look closely around the somewhat hidden kickers, you can even see FP metal with real reflection textures I made with a post behind it, all from FP. Very small detail, but I love wasting time on that junk.
Still work to do. I've never liked how VP did standups, and again since I don't have good pics for AH to work with, those will be FP as well, even animated with the proper bulb fixtures and lighting behind them.
I'm working on those right now.
The lights are all done, layout is done, PF and plastics are done.
What's left?
I mentioned the upper target/bulb fixtures I'm working on.
I need to add decals for the upper plunger lane wire guide and the flipper wire guides. That shouldn't be too difficult.
Oh, and I need to add a whole bunch of those rollover triggers, which I actually have done but they aren't in this screen. I just need to make another frame for them, they will be animated.
So...the table is pretty much done and ready to go after that.
I do plan to replace the apron and get some cards on there (thanks to inkonc..Peter for recreating the cards off the images I was able to pull off the pic, they look 100x better).
This apron is OK, but I think I have something to make a better one.
Anyhow, I'm pretty happy with the results. I guess its not bad for a quick fixer-upper mod without any good resources, but finally all the work with sub par images is starting to pay off for me as I can do these types of things, HGT for FP was something that really helped me learn how to fix up images more than anything else and I couldn't be happier with how that worked out, considering. FP demands much bigger and cleaner images if you want to compete with those tables that do have great resources to use. You have to find a way to "git r' done".
Wonder how people will feel about a table that mixes FP and VP?
Well, it shouldn't matter. I just do whatever I can to make a good table. This isn't something I would call a masterpiece, its just a quick mod (like the many others I can't release, except this one I can!) that uses an interesting idea, although I definitely worked on more than I first intended to. Concept is old, just has a new twist!
I thank LTA for letting me have at it and get the drops working correctly (which was quite tricky, maybe because I'm not a coding genious, I am quite capable, but this table is unique with its drops and the way they operate, vpm didn't want to use the solenoids as they were apparently supposed to be used, but although rigged a bit everything is working and not buggy). Also thank him for his work on the table and nico and vpmx for their prior work.
They did a great job considering the lack of manual and images for the table.
I just gave it a 2006 overhaul despite any better images, but photoshop has also improved over the years! And thanks to the new info's, especially the insight from joke0, who has played the table, we got this thing playing accurately as well.
I also managed to find/figure out the 4 lightbox lights (HGTD, game over, tilt, and shoot again) that were missing from the prior version. Couldn't find lamp #'s for these in the manual, just a little trial and error found it all.
It still looks a little rough around the edges, but once I fill in the top, triggers, and lanes with reels and decals as well as get a better apron in there, I think it will make for a much better screen.
But for now...
