A Pinball Nirvana Exclusive!
Phantom of the Opera (Data East, 1990) Slamt1lt's Collection ULTIMATE v1.04-4
IPD No. 1777
This version of Phantom of the Opera is only available for download on Pinball Nirvana. This table has two sound tracks, one of which is the original and the other is voiced by Slamt1lt himself. Data East developed a beautiful playfield for this table. I decided to take special care to develop lighting for it on this version. In addition to adding my standard set of lighting options (Day, Night, Dark Night, Night Glow and FP Original), I made adjustments to the brightness of every light on the playfield.
Side rails have been added that use art modified from the back wall. The cityscape on the back wall is hidden from view so it is nice to have it visible on the side rails. I got curious about the building depicted on it and I think it is the National Opera of Paris. At least, it appears to be similar to photographs I found.
This version adds new instruction cards to the apron. The original one on the left was white and it looks better with the new darker version. I also touched up the texture on the bottom border of the apron.
A light insert for the playfield was missed during the original development of this table. I have added it to this version. It is the "Double Score" light that blinks when the "Double Your Score" mode starts during the last ball.
I tweaked the custom physics on this version of the table. The physics are not dramatically different from previous versions but I think they are better.
The backglass had too much red color so I edited it to remove some of the red tint.
This version also adds these features:
Shadow Maps – The slingshots and other lights under the plastics have some subtly added shadows.
DMD background color – The default DMD set up has a strong red background that I changed to near black. It matches the color of the unlit pixels on the display that I adjusted using a ZIP file included in the download (see User Guide below).
Ball and Flipper Shadows – I made some adjustments to BAM's default appearance of these shadows.
Ball Configuration – I changed BAM's default settings for the appearance of the ball.
I hope you enjoy this version of the table. I spent a lot of time working on the lighting. I used to consider the table, "Tales of the Arabian Nights" to be my best but I think this table is my best now.
Table Developers: DRAKKO, francisco666, GeorgeH, Gimli, Siggi, SLAMT1LT, thorgeist, Titomartinez
NOTE: This table uses Dynamic Flippers and Lighting that require use of BAM v1.4-267 (or later) to be installed which was released on November 9, 2019. Part of the script requires version 290 although I have added some coding that will ignore this script if you don't have version 290 installed yet. It is very easy to upgrade. You can download the most current version at the following link. This installation file installs Future Pinball and BAM at the same time. If you have either Future Pinball or BAM already installed, you can still run it and it will bring everything up to date.
https://www.ravarcade.pl/files/FP-BAM-setup.exe
It is possible that you may be using a version of BAM that is too old without realizing it. I added a message that will display if you are not using the recommended version of BAM. You can press a key to turn the message off and continue playing. If you play a game to completion, you won't see the message again. Of course, if you are using the recommended version of BAM, you won't see the message at all.
User Guide (included in the download as a PDF)
Press the "Special 2" key repeatedly to cycle through the lighting options. All the lighting options use BAM's "New Renderer" except the option for "FP Original". Although "FP Original" does not look as good as the other options, it requires fewer system resources that the other options and you should use it if the table plays with a low frame rate (sometimes called "stuttering").
There are a large number of adjustments the end user can make at the beginning of the script. I have added comments to the script on how to make changes.
There are two table loading textures. One is in the portrait format and the other is landscape. I recommend using the portrait version for pinball cabinets. If you would like to switch to a different texture, open the Future Pinball editor for the table and click on the "Tables" pull down menu. Then select the "Table Info" option. Under the option for "Loading Picture", you can select either of the following:
!LoadingLandscape
!LoadingPortrait
The playfield texture has a resolution of 2048x4096. There is a higher resolution texture of the playfield (3736x7300) included in the download. Those of you have a pinball cabinet and use a 4K monitor, may want to try it. You do need a reasonably capable PC to run it. To use it, open the Texture Manager in the Future Pinball editor. Delete the texture "playfieldonwork3" and import the version from the download.
Press the "HUD Toggle Key" to cycle the Heads Up Display (HUD) on and off. It is set up to save your settings to the fpRam file in your Future Pinball folder. When you play and close the table, the HUD setting is saved so it loads the same HUD setting the next time you play the table.
The table has the original Data East sound track and Slamt1lt's sound track. You can toggle between the two by pressing Special Key 1 on your keyboard.
There is a download that has an option for rotated display. This version is intended to be used on a single monitor with a portrait orientation. I have added a screenshot of it to the posting. NOTE: This version will not be useful on pinball cabinets or on PCs which have a normal landscape orientation. The download includes a PDF file with directions on how to set up this version of the table.
There is a "zip" file included in the download. It has a texture for the DMD that sets the unlit dots on the DMD to black instead of a dark gray. This makes it match the background color of the DMDs that I have set to near black in the script. Do not unzip the "zip" file. Save it with the table using the exact same name of the table. Note that the zip file does not contain an XML file. The XML has been added to the script.
