Williams SS Recreation FP Swords of Fury (Williams, 1988) Custom Physics v1.3

Swords of Fury is really a cool table and fun to play. It is one of the few tables I have seen that has no bumpers on it. Another unusual feature is that when the drop targets on the upper playfield lower, a path opens up where the ball can drop down to the main playfield and comes out in front of the flipper on the upper playfield. If you have the ball follow this route, you actually end up with a reduction in points but you do get the ball aligned so you can try to shoot the ball up the center ramp. The music on this table is fantastic. Brian Schmidt created the theme music and several of its variations which are played in different modes and it works amazingly well.

"Deedolith" created a pretty accurate reproduction of the Williams table although it is unfinished. I'd say it is about 95 percent complete. "Onlinechaos" took Deedolith's unfinished table and made it playable even though it is still not finished. I found four obvious items that are incomplete. The first is the table has no jackpot like the original that carries over from game to game. Secondly, the two inlanes that have stars displayed on the entrances only change the path on the plastic gate system on the top right side of the table. When a ball goes through the inlane, it is supposed to light next letter in "AVENGER" and start the Magic Tunnel flashing. It is also supposed to light the 3X on the U-Turn but instead they are lit when the ball goes up the left lane or the "Titan Tunnel". Thirdly, I've watched videos of the real table and there is a female voice that sometimes tells you to go for the tunnel which is absent on this table. Finally, the backboard has some game status information on the original table that are not present here. There could be some other minor items that I missed. I would have liked to be able to finish the table but I don't know enough about writing script to finish it. Hopefully, someone else might take this on. I don't think it would take a great deal of effort for someone knowledgeable. The table plays very nicely even though it is not completely finished.

Now that I told what I didn't do, it is time to tell what I did. First and foremost, I added custom physics. I used Malifica's XML file that is posted on the forum to start with and revised it to fit the table. The ball with his XML file is heavier than I normally use and works perfectly on the ramps. If you don't think that physics can transform a table, I invite you to compare the original table with this one. I am particularly satisfied with the way the physics turned out. When the original table was built, there were not nearly as many options for physics as there are today. The only options back then were to adjust table slope and strength settings on certain objects on the table. I suspect the original table was not finished because of problems with the physics. I did have some difficulty getting the center ramp to perform well myself. I tuned the whole table by adjusting the strength settings of all the objects on the table along with adjusting the angle and swing of the flippers. I have watched several videos of the real table and the physics of this table are pretty close.

After I read Blue's tutorial on his version 2 flipper modification, I had to try it. So I added the flipper mod to this table. It was quite a struggle for me because I am not very good with script but I got it to work. If you are not familiar with Blue's flippers, each flipper actually consists of 2 flippers with a shorter one being invisible. They are supposed to provide for better range and speed. Version 2 has triggers so the small hidden flippers will only work when the ball is over the trigger which is supposed to prevent "mishits" and interference with ball movement. If you want to be able to see the small flipper operate, you can make it visible again by turning off layer 1 and turning on layer 2. Then you click on the small circle where the flipper is and change the flipper model to "Flipper-T1 Short". I had a problem with the trigger that activates the flipper. Although the one that Blue used worked when the ball rolled down the inlane to the flipper, it didn't activate correctly when the ball rolled into the flipper directly from the playfield. I switched to a star trigger and was able to position it so the small flipper operates correctly. The upper playfield has a small flipper so Blue's flipper mod won't work on it. I decided to make it a double flipper in the same manner that is done on Zedonius tables. I am interested in hearing how you like Blue's flipper mod. I may not add this feature to future tables that I work on unless I get some positive feedback. The mod made it difficult to adjust the angle and swing of the flippers.

The original table is basically a cabinet version because it has no Heads Up Display (HUD). I created a HUD for this table so the desktop users will be able to play it and see the score and other statistics. The HUD has an overlay that I created also. The script has the code "nvBallsPerGame = 5" although the display for the number of balls on the original table would be incorrect if you changed the number of balls to anything other than 5. I managed to change the script so it will display the number of balls correctly if you change nvBallsPerGame to a number between 1 and 9. The script also had some default high scores that I disabled because I don't like them. I like to enter my own high scores. Out of respect for the table builders, added the same default scores to the "Table Info" screen that is the first option on the "Table" menu of the Future Pinball editor. I moved it here so that any end user can easily delete the high scores if desired. Note that if you play the table before deleting the high scores, you will need to click on the button that says "Reset fpRam file to Defaults" on this same screen before the scores will be eliminated. Be aware that pressing this button will delete all your high scores that you have accumulated so the sooner you make this change after you download the table the better.

Miownkhan thought I should add a room to the table so the guys that have VR headsets would have something to see when they play the table. Miownkhan set up a room and I added it to the table. The two ramps on the table were originally set up so each had two ramps that joined together. This was done to improve the appearance of the ramp although this double ramp interferes with its operation. Miownkhan suggested I delete the extra ramp and add a noncollidable plate to take its place. I found some ornamental plates to use on each ramp that are noncollidable (which means they won't affect the ball) and deleted the second ramp. This improved the performance of both ramps. The ornamental plates are not an exact match to the original table but are pretty close.

The original table had several problems with balls getting stuck so that the game had to be restarted. The ball would get stuck at two locations where the wire ramps join the plastic gate system. The ball would also get stuck when it dropped behind the drop targets on the upper playfield. Then, there were times when the ball would fly off the table when going up the center ramp. I managed to fix these problems.

I made some cosmetic changes to the table like changing the brightness of some of the lights because some were either too bright or too dark. The texture on the upper playfield was too dark so I made it brighter. There was a decal in the left lane (or called the Titan Tunnel) that was so dark that it was nearly black. After I exported it, I noticed it had the wrong colors on it so I changed it to match the original table and also made it brighter.

The download includes a PLEASE READ THIS FIRST.txt file that has instructions for handling the files in the download. Also please note that this table requires that you have Better Arcade Mode (BAM) installed. If you do not have BAM installed, please follow the directions that are posted here:

GoPinball.com • View topic - Step-By-Step Instructions for Installation of BAM

Pushing the Pinball limits...One pixel at a time

www.gopinball.com

George




This table is a mod of :
Swords of Fury FakeMod 1.2b

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I created a rule sheet that uses content that is posted on the apron of the table but also includes the rule sheet that was written by Williams. The rule sheet begins with a screen shot of the table that has annotations with names of the various objects on the table. The body of the rules sheet has cut outs of screenshots of the table to help identify the parts of the table being discussed. Since this table is unfinished, I deleted the content that is not present on the current table in the PDF version. I believe I deleted everything that are not relevant to the current table although I may have missed some minor details. In hopes that someone would finish the table, I also saved a version in rich text format (RTF) so that the rules can be easily revised with the changes from the finished version. The RTF should be able to be opened with most word processors. It opens perfectly with Microsoft Word.

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