...ahhh...hello?...

[ZedU54]

...just registered; first post. I haven't been able to find any kind of 'introductions' thread so I guess I have to 'wing it'. I just found out about all this Virtual Pinball/PinMAME stuff a week or so ago when someone on an antique radio forum I belong to mentioned it. And...well...now I'm sufficiently confused. I'm 55 and was an electronics technician in a previous life. I have also been a huge fan of pinball since my younger days (when technically you had to be 18 or older to play them...and I was like 15-16...); thus, I grew up with a lot of 60s and 70s tables. So I came here, quite honestly, thinking this would be a great place to find recreations of some of those old tables. Which I have done. And downloaded the stuff to play them. I'm having a few difficulties getting some of the ROM-based tables to work (Xenon, for example, is giving me ROM path errors and won't play), but the vintage EM tables I've picked up have been working OK.
...There appears to be quite a lot of history to this site, and a lot of it not good. Seems to be 'ancient history' now, although a few people have had trouble getting past it. Seems reasonable to say I'm glad I missed it.
...Anyway, count me in as another longstanding pinball fan. I don't know how I would be able to make any contributions to this site (I'm not up on coding, etc., although I don't think I'm completely incapable of learning it...and I also don't understand this 'Credits' thingie that's part of my profile...what are these 'Credits' and where do they come from...and what are they for?...and what do I do with a table that is not a .vpt file (I have a few that are .fpt files...I assume that's Future Pinball; does that require a different emulator to play those?)...
...Well, hoping to hear from people. Like I said, I'm a noob, and an old noob at that...I shall be as civil as possible, and ask only the same in return...
...of course, a good 'pinta' never hurt anyone...:grin:

 

[LeeVanCleef]

And here I thought Zed was dead. At least, that's what Bruce Willis told me in Pulp Fiction. Well, Zed, I'm probably one of the most technically retarded members when it comes to the inner workings of pinmame, but let's see if I can give you a hand. The roms that you downloaded need to go into the roms folder that should be located in the vpinmame folder. That, of course, requires you to install the latest version of Pinmame, which, if I remember correctly, includes instructions onjust how to do that. Pinmame is required to play the tables with roms. Whatever you do, don't unzip the roms! Leave them in the WinZip or WinRar format that they were downloaded in. Hopefully, that should clear up any problems. .fpt files do, indeed, require the Future Pinball emulator, which isn't really my cuppa, but it does have its fans, and some of the tables look fantastic!
This site has a fine history... is probably one of the best VP sites on the web. Sure, we've gotten into our share of free-for-alls, but site guru Jon PurpleHaze runs a wonderfully loose forum where pretty much anything within reason goes, without a lot of heavy-handed moderating... and that's why we love it! Grow a nice thick skin and wade on in!
I've been here... well, awhile... and I still haven't figured out the whole "credits" thing. I sure seem to have a bunch of them! I'm hoping each credit is worth one dollar. I'm expecting a check from Jon any day now.

 

[Anthias]

Yep - welcome indeed! JPH has indeed made a home for a lot of us misfits here that has indeed seen a few.... interesting.... threads, but we prefer it warts and all!

the credits - not too sure either lol - I haven't looked at it much. I think its so we can buy each other drinks and things, like the heineken ruby has above.

so cheers!

 

[ZedU54]

...oh, dear...Zed is dead??...nobody told me... :verysad:
...actually, I use 'Zed' because I spent some time in the UK (where that's what they call the letter Z...I'm pretty sure I don't really need to tell you that...) while in the US Air Force. I quite enjoyed the experience...

 

[sleepy]

Did you install Visual Pinball and VPinMAME using the VIP install by Phoenixx or are you taking the Spartan route with installation?

You can download the VIP installer which contains all necessary programs and files here:

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/UpDownload-req-viewsdownload-sid-33.html

Remember to uninstall any previous installations of Visual Pinball or VPinMAME before installing VIP or new versions of Visual Pinball or VPinMAME.


For The Spartan Route you need to:

(1)Install Visual Pinball full version throught the Visual Pinball installer

(2)Install VPinMAME . Create a folder and name it something like vpinmame. I put mine in the C:\Program Files\Visual Pinball folder after installing Visual Pinball. Then unzip the latest VPinMAME program download to this folder. Then go to this folder and click the Setup.exe to open it. Click the Install button. Afterwards, click the Setup Paths button and make sure the ROMs path points to the address of the vpinmame\Roms folder on the hard drive.

(3)Download the VBS files and unzip them to the Visual Pinball\Tables folder after installing Visual Pinball. Get them here:

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/UpDownload-req-viewsdownload-sid-33.html

(4)Now you need two files for each VPinMAME table. Download a VPinMAME table AND
the corresponding ROM.zip for the table. Each VPinMAME table has a specific ROM by name for it.

(5)Unzip the table.vpt file to the \Program Files\Visual Pinball\Tables folder.

(6)Put the ROM in the \vpinmame\Roms folder. Keep the ROM ZIPPED.

For some 1980's Bally and Gottlieb VPinMAME tables, you will need to download the Bally 6803 and GTS3 NVRAM files. Unzip these to the vpinmame\nvram folder. Get them here:

http://www.pinballnirvana.com/UpDownload-req-viewsdownload-sid-33.html

Remember that tables need to be started once to set the operating settings. The first time, press the top 7 key (don't use the NUMPAD 7 key). If the table doesn't begin setup and calibration, then press F3. VPinMAME will reset and the mtable should be playable.
You do not need to press 7 or F3 for the Bally and Gottlieb tables that use the special nvram files, or for any table with a special nvram file in the table.zip. If there is a nvram file in the table.zip, then put the .nvram in the vpinmame\nvram folder and the table should be immediately playable. In fact, the need to calibrate or restart a table the first time you play it is because the settings are being saved in a nvram file created by the program. You should only need to do this once.

As an electronics engineer, you might be interested in operating the control settings for modern SS (solid state) tables. For Williams machines start the table, press the 0 (zero) key twice to enter settings and diagnostics mode. Press the top 8 or 9 key to navigate the menus and the 0 (zero) key to enter. Press 7 repeatedly to back out of the menu mode and return to play mode.
The (Game) Adjustments menu is for game settings.

 

[1234fd]

Pfffffff!
I prefer the VIP!
Thanks Phoenixx!