Paratech???

[druadic]

I've heard Paratech has a website. Is this true? Where is it? Thanks in advance. What other VP sites are there now? Please post links below. I'd like to see them all for the hell of it :)

d

 

[bob]

Paratech doesn't have a pinball website and he never created any tables. He has posted at the new VPF, but I think he lost interest in VP.

You are most likely looking for Paratrox.

Try Googling for Visual Pinball and you'll find all kinds of stuff.

http://patatrox.chez-alice.fr/

 

[sleepy]

Paratech did create a table that had a spinning flipper, but the following release of VP fixed it like it was a bug to allow a flipper to spin and so broke the table.

 

[druadic]

Huh, go figure. I think Paratech and Patatrox are both different folks though. I knew Paratech a long while back. I thought he had a site all his own but I guess it was just for his tables.

Sleepy, how is that? You mean they fixed VP so it made a spinning flipper obsolete? Heh. I'm surprised they FINALLY got multiple balls not to "meld" with each other. That is FINALLY a nice fix. I guess I can see where you're coming from with this though - MANY tables used Table.Slope to make the table move up and down and now it doesn't work. That is really stupid. That is one hell of an error to put into a program. I'm finding VP9 has quite a few errors that cannot be worked around which is a shame. VP6 was really the most stable release I ever used. VP8 seems just as good. VP9 has me scratching my head and wondering what in the world - who would release something like this? Seems a bit buggy to me. I've found many issues with VP9 that were not issues with VP8 and earlier releases. What is up with this program?

The triggers for VP9 are simply awful. Use round triggers on ANY surface and they work (to a point and are now so touchy you can't use them quite right) but making custom triggers has not worked for me. Any shape, they do not read. I have a stand up skill machine and it's waiting to be released but the triggers refuse to work even at 50 high. I don't understand this. I used the same in VP8 and nothing was wrong. I don't know what is up but the devs need to go back and check everything out to see where they ----ed up. I am very disappointed with this release but have been using it. I have pulled out half my hair in an attempt to keep my insanity - my sanity died long ago as I got older. All I can say is "shame, shame, shame".

d

It's almost like 80% of the older VP folks left; Kinsey, Shiva, Warrior, DesAngel, Plumb, Mr. Fixx and the like. That is too bad - we all got along and we all helped each other when it came to VP wip. How sad this has all been disbanded. Even Gottlieb helped me time and time again. If any of them read this; I miss ya one and all!

 

[sleepy]

Sleepy, how is that? You mean they fixed VP so it made a spinning flipper obsolete?

Aw hell no. Back then if you set the Flipper Start angle to 720 and the End Angle to 0 or something like that, the Flipper would spin endlessly, but for whatever reason this was "fixed" in the next release. Now you can't spin the Flipper more than x number of times.
For instance, with a Start Angle of 0 and an End Angle of 720, a Flipper will spin twice only.
Then it stops.

I discovered this endless spinning Flipper trick and so did Paratech separately and without consort, and he used it in his table until the next release broke it.
I had a Castlevania demo that used a large hard spinning Flipper to mercilessly whip the ball around as a Guardian Knight from the video game while playing an attack theme from Super Castlevania IV and I shared this with someone who was working on an official Castlevania release, but in the next VP release the Spinning Flipper done died.
The only way you can do a spinning Flipper now is to use several several Flippers like PacDude did for the spinning "Waterworks" Flipper in the "Monopoly" table, but that's so wasteful on the resources, like animated Walls and Fading Lights and how they take away from the CPU power. Heavy overhead.

 

[StevOz]

Attached here is a spinning flipper demo by kinsey which works in VP9 although it was designed in VP8.

 

[sleepy]

That's a good workaround.
Maybe it's my cheap video card but it doesn't look smooth like the single Flipper rotating did, but again...I'm so embarrassed!
My ATI 9500 w/256Mb. for my dual Win98SE/XP Pro dogeared system blew sky high after only two years (I think one of my cats pissed on it while the computer case was left open) and I am now hobbling on an ATI AlL iN wOnDeR rAgE pRo UnTiL a SuItAbLe RePlAcEmEnT cArD ThAt MeEtS mY hIgH sTaNdArDs CaN bE aCqUiReD.

 

[druadic]

Attached here is a spinning flipper demo by kinsey which works in VP9 although it was designed in VP8.

Thanks Steve!

Has anyone seen or heard from Kinsey? Where did she go? Along with her, where is Warrior, Des Angel, Plumb, Fixx and Apocalypse.

Anyone know? I already know that you know Bob so there's no need for you to post a silly remark to this post. I know you will though. Anyone else know?

d

Sleepy; I have an ATI 8500 Radeon LE which runs EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING ever made. It still works but it's in Florida. If I had access to it I'd send it your way. Sorry. That card has NEVER let me down.

 

[StevOz]

You might be able to contact Kinsey at her site.

http://www.paganpinball.com/

 

[druadic]

Thanks Steve. Very much appreciated. I have emailed her. Hope I can find the others as well.

d

 

[druadic]

Thanks Sleepy! Appreciated. PM me if anything else comes up.

d

 

[druadic]

You might be able to contact Kinsey at her site.

http://www.paganpinball.com/

Steve AND Sleepy;

Just got an email from Kinsey TODAY (12/30/10) and she is doing well. She no longer uses the above site at all. I have her new link so at least I can stay in touch with her. She stopped using VP almost 2 years ago. I will PM you with more information. Thanks again guys. Appreciated.

d

 

[druadic]

SteveOz AND Sleepy;

Check your PM's. More info. Thanks guys if you can help.

d

 

[faralos]

here's a weird thing with vp9 that I have encountered. Whenever I place the default trigger it does not show up on the table at all! But custom triggers work and show up so all my tables must now have custom triggers in them! or decals to have the round star rollovers to show up at all.

Druadic, if you need custom triggers I can send you a table demo with mine in for you to use...

 

[druadic]

Faralos;

What version are you using? I have 910. That's what it shows when I bring up the info. For some reason I can't use custom triggers - the circular ones work but suck.

I have to find a different version of VP. Just can't find it yet. Thanks for the offer but I have work yet to do with Good Luck before I release it. That will give me time.

Thanks for your offer though. Appreciated.

d

 

[faralos]

I have vp9.09
here is a pinball table link I have, this one is pre 2005 tables:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~checkma/pinball/originals-old.html

 

[druadic]

I have vp9.09
here is a pinball table link I have, this one is pre 2005 tables:
http://www.public.asu.edu/~checkma/pinball/originals-old.html

Faralos;

Thanks; this went over to IRPinball and I downloaded VP 9.07 so that should take care of my problems. I also got the EM core script from when I get Gottlieb's 1970 Mini Cycle finished. Thanks again!

d