WIP Recreation FizX FP Roller Disco, What a deep rabbit hole this is....

[SpacePirateScott]

As part of my self inflicted, "I should learn how to make tables in Future Pinball", learning course, I have decided to do an update on Gotlieb's Roller Disco Pinball.

Why have I chosen, a table that is, from what I can tell, not very popular?

First, I wanted a simpler table that I could make a significant improvement to. Considering that this table's theme is roller disco, it kind of fails in the music department. No disrespect to the creators of the original machine intended. In fact what they managed with what sounds like a single channel 8 bit sound generator is pretty good. Unfortunately the theme is all about the music, and lights, but the technology just wasn't there. So it seemed like a no brainer, that adding actual Disco music and fancy lighting could really elevate this table.

Secondly, I wanted to learn how to make pup paks, so there is a lot music videos I can use as source material.

Thirdly. I wanted to shake down the SPSColorSequencer on a table, so this theme lends itself flashy lighting effects.

And finally, my wife broke her arm in a roller disco accident a couple years, ago, so this is an opportunity to tease her about it. :)\

So here is my plan:

Roller Disco Nova Edition:
- This version should look and play like the original physical table as much as possible.
- Upscale art work to 4k
- Add latest FizX, DOF and SSF support .
- Redo lighting to take advantage of latest BAM features.
- Add a 'black light', lighting mode. This table was originally advertised, as 'the "Glowingest" game ever' I didn't know Glowingest was a word, but it was on the brochure, so it must be a real word, right? In any case this table was designed to be played under black light, so I think that adding a black light mode would still be in keeping with the original designer's intent.

Roller Disco Super Nova Edition:
- Add cool and fun stuff. This will definitely not be "authentic" to the original, but I would like to think that the original creators would have done this if they could.
- Add Pup pack with classic disco music videos
- Lighted Dance floor. (see the SPS Color Sequencer demo video for a proof of concept)
- Multiball modes.
-And a bunch of other ideas, that may or may not work.

So if this is a favorite of anyone, or you have actually played this in real life. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

 

[Popotte]

In fact what they managed with what sounds like a single channel 8 bit sound generator is pretty good. Unfortunately the theme is all about the music, and lights, but the technology just wasn't there. So it seemed like a no brainer, that adding actual Disco music and fancy lighting could really elevate this table.

Technology was here, but have a cost. Data East (later and the only one) made stereo pinballs.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

Data East (later and the only one) made stereo pinballs.

Actually, I should have said a single voice sound hardware. So only one note at a time. The Commodore 64 which came out 2 years later was considered innovative since it could play a staggering 3 notes all at the same time.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

So the first step was to gather references and other resources. And that was opening of the rabbit hole, so I just jumped right in. :)



Looking at Granit's FP Roller Disco table, something was off with the playfield art. The figures and graphic elements that should have been circular look squished when compared to photos of the actual game.





I checked the texture and it looked squished in the other direction. Checking the table dimensions in the editor, they were correct for a Gottlieb widebody table, so everything seemed correct. That's when I discovered that Roller Disco, along with Circus and Genie, was one of three Super Widebody tables. The table is actually about 15% wider than the standard widebody tables. That's why the art looks wrong on the table. I can set the table to correct the width, but all of the playfield objects will have to be modified, moved or recreated. Sigh.

The next thing I found out is that there really isn't any good high res scans of the playfield and even less for the plastics. The FP texture is really low res, and AI upscaling did nothing for it. The VPX version has a higher res texture, but it's still blurry and suffers from lens distortion. I also needed to extract the line art from color background if I was going to be able to make a Black Light version. Well clearly I'm just going to have to redo the entire playfield and plastics.

I ended up combining a bunch of photos and scans of the figures and skates, extracting the colors and retracing, or touching up as needed. For the text and the rest of the line art, I created new vector versions. I ended up working at 8k with the intent of downscaling to 4k to keep everything crisp. Here is a sample of the final line art at 4k...


I then added the colors back in on separate layers and restored the "Kirby Krackle" and halftone. For comparison, here is a before and after. Hopefully it's clear which is which.



At this point, I am well and firmly down the rabbit hole....

 

[Popotte]

Data East is also the first with a DMD. When you want, you can! Unfortunately, Data East died (for pinballs) in 1994.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

I was now able to mockup the "Black Light" version. Here is mockup of how it should look


I'm pretty happy with this effect. I think it really captures the look of the black light posters popular at the time.

We will see how good I can make this look in the actual engine.

Of course this led even further down the rabbit hole. It appears that the green paint on the playfield of real tables isn't actually fluorescent, but just a bright chartreuse. So it would actually look like this


The green paint on the black glass and plastics are definitely fluorescent ...


So what's with that? I wasn't able to find any real info on this, but based on the design of the graphics, I think it was always intended to be fluorescent green on the playfield, but due to cost, or availability issues it was substituted out when the playfields were printed. This was after all supposed to be the "Glowingest" game ever.

So do I go with the unsubstantiated "original" intent of the design, or the what was actually delivered in real life?

Yep, I'm going with the "Glowingest" version and keeping the fluorescent green. I will keep the chartreuse color on the normal light version. but if anyone actually cares, I can provide the boring version of the black light texture as well.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

The playfield and plastics are all done, but I still have the back glass to update. I might take a break on this for a bit since this is going to be a real bitch. There are also a lot of mirrored elements on the back glass, so I not sure the best way to deal with this. I will have to check out other tables to see what people have done in the past with this.

I'm also annoyed at Gordon Morison, the original artist of Roller Disco for picking fonts don't have a digital version available. I mean, he really should have been thinking back in 1979: "I think I will use this font for the title. No wait this font is pretty obscure. What if somebody with ODC tendencies wants to recreate the artwork in 2024 for a computer simulation of the pinball table? Better choose a more popular font"

It was quite rude of him not to consider that.

 

[StevOz]

Nice, I will be watching, used to roller skate in my youth, even had custom made skates. Also did a mod of a mod of mod of this table. It's an old version, though was made more colourful.

VP9 - Gottlieb - SS - Recreation - Roller Disco (Gottlieb, 1980) VP9

Roller Disco (Gottlieb, 1980) VP9 v1.0 [CM] [WS] [DT] MOD IPDB No. 2005 MOD & DEV NOTES: - Many thanks to Gottlieb for creating this table and LW, Zany & Serpiko for their re-creations of this table. - This is the FS to DT conversion of the LW...

pinballnirvana.com

 

[madmrmax]

So the first step was to gather references and other resources. And that was opening of the rabbit hole, so I just jumped right in. :)



Looking at Granit's FP Roller Disco table, something was off with the playfield art. The figures and graphic elements that should have been circular look squished when compared to photos of the actual game.

View attachment 42626



I checked the texture and it looked squished in the other direction. Checking the table dimensions in the editor, they were correct for a Gottlieb widebody table, so everything seemed correct. That's when I discovered that Roller Disco, along with Circus and Genie, was one of three Super Widebody tables. The table is actually about 15% wider than the standard widebody tables. That's why the art looks wrong on the table. I can set the table to correct the width, but all of the playfield objects will have to be modified, moved or recreated. Sigh.

The next thing I found out is that there really isn't any good high res scans of the playfield and even less for the plastics. The FP texture is really low res, and AI upscaling did nothing for it. The VPX version has a higher res texture, but it's still blurry and suffers from lens distortion. I also needed to extract the line art from color background if I was going to be able to make a Black Light version. Well clearly I'm just going to have to redo the entire playfield and plastics.

I ended up combining a bunch of photos and scans of the figures and skates, extracting the colors and retracing, or touching up as needed. For the text and the rest of the line art, I created new vector versions. I ended up working at 8k with the intent of downscaling to 4k to keep everything crisp. Here is a sample of the final line art at 4k...

View attachment 42627
I then added the colors back in on separate layers and restored the "Kirby Krackle" and halftone. For comparison, here is a before and after. Hopefully it's clear which is which.

View attachment 42629

At this point, I am well and firmly down the rabbit hole....

+100 points for using the term Kirby Krackle, btw. Very good!!

Pinside has some other images of the pin in case you are still looking for art visuals. https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/roller-disco/gallery#&gid=1&pid=19

 

[SpacePirateScott]

+100 points for using the term Kirby Krackle, btw. Very good!!

I'm pretty much dating myself with that term. But if you can't get a date, you might as well date yourself.

I ended up getting a new brush for Clip Studio for this table..

Behold the mighty Kirby Krackle brush.

For the uninitiated, here is a link to Wikipedia: Kirby Krackle

 

[SpacePirateScott]

Pinside has some other images of the pin

I actually used this image as reference for the facial features.

 

[GeorgeH]

As part of my self inflicted, "I should learn how to make tables in Future Pinball", learning course, I have decided to do an update on Gotlieb's Roller Disco Pinball.

Why have I chosen, a table that is, from what I can tell, not very popular?

First, I wanted a simpler table that I could make a significant improvement to. Considering that this table's theme is roller disco, it kind of fails in the music department. No disrespect to the creators of the original machine intended. In fact what they managed with what sounds like a single channel 8 bit sound generator is pretty good. Unfortunately the theme is all about the music, and lights, but the technology just wasn't there. So it seemed like a no brainer, that adding actual Disco music and fancy lighting could really elevate this table.

Secondly, I wanted to learn how to make pup paks, so there is a lot music videos I can use as source material.

Thirdly. I wanted to shake down the SPSColorSequencer on a table, so this theme lends itself flashy lighting effects.

And finally, my wife broke her arm in a roller disco accident a couple years, ago, so this is an opportunity to tease her about it. :)\

So here is my plan:

Roller Disco Nova Edition:
- This version should look and play like the original physical table as much as possible.
- Upscale art work to 4k
- Add latest FizX, DOF and SSF support .
- Redo lighting to take advantage of latest BAM features.
- Add a 'black light', lighting mode. This table was originally advertised, as 'the "Glowingest" game ever' I didn't know Glowingest was a word, but it was on the brochure, so it must be a real word, right? In any case this table was designed to be played under black light, so I think that adding a black light mode would still be in keeping with the original designer's intent.

Roller Disco Super Nova Edition:
- Add cool and fun stuff. This will definitely not be "authentic" to the original, but I would like to think that the original creators would have done this if they could.
- Add Pup pack with classic disco music videos
- Lighted Dance floor. (see the SPS Color Sequencer demo video for a proof of concept)
- Multiball modes.
-And a bunch of other ideas, that may or may not work.

So if this is a favorite of anyone, or you have actually played this in real life. Please let me know your thoughts on this.

View attachment 42623

If you wanted an easy table to start with, you shouldn't have picked one of Granit's tables. His tables are not coded well. The graphics are the best part and you have already found have deficiencies on them as well. If you want to do a good job on this table, you will probably have to recode the whole thing following a set of rules that have been published on the internet.

Francisco666 built good tables and he has posted permission on the forum that anyone can mod them. Maybe start with one of his older ones. It would be better to start with anyone's table other than Granit.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

anyone's table other than Granit.

Well, I'm deep in the sunk cost fallacy, at this point. :) I might end up building the table from scratch anyway based on the amount of changes I will have to make to fix the table dimensions and upgrade the lighting. The rule set is pretty easy, and with the changes I am thinking of adding, starting from a fresh base might be the smart move.

I will decide after I finish the backglass art

 

[GeorgeH]

Just so you know, GhostMachine's tables aren't very good either.

 

[TerryRed]

So the first step was to gather references and other resources. And that was opening of the rabbit hole, so I just jumped right in. :)



Looking at Granit's FP Roller Disco table, something was off with the playfield art. The figures and graphic elements that should have been circular look squished when compared to photos of the actual game.

View attachment 42626



I checked the texture and it looked squished in the other direction. Checking the table dimensions in the editor, they were correct for a Gottlieb widebody table, so everything seemed correct. That's when I discovered that Roller Disco, along with Circus and Genie, was one of three Super Widebody tables. The table is actually about 15% wider than the standard widebody tables. That's why the art looks wrong on the table. I can set the table to correct the width, but all of the playfield objects will have to be modified, moved or recreated. Sigh.

The next thing I found out is that there really isn't any good high res scans of the playfield and even less for the plastics. The FP texture is really low res, and AI upscaling did nothing for it. The VPX version has a higher res texture, but it's still blurry and suffers from lens distortion. I also needed to extract the line art from color background if I was going to be able to make a Black Light version. Well clearly I'm just going to have to redo the entire playfield and plastics.

I ended up combining a bunch of photos and scans of the figures and skates, extracting the colors and retracing, or touching up as needed. For the text and the rest of the line art, I created new vector versions. I ended up working at 8k with the intent of downscaling to 4k to keep everything crisp. Here is a sample of the final line art at 4k...

View attachment 42627
I then added the colors back in on separate layers and restored the "Kirby Krackle" and halftone. For comparison, here is a before and after. Hopefully it's clear which is which.

View attachment 42629

At this point, I am well and firmly down the rabbit hole....

Very common to find tables that didn't use the correct dimensions of the real pin, which resulted in the art, etc not being correct. Some tables didn't have access to a scan of the pf art so they used stitched together photos, which also causes some tables to not be "correct" with the layout and item placements.

So needing to rebuild the layout for a table to rectify this kind of thing is not uncommon on both FP and VP.

 

[SpacePirateScott]

WIP Update: Lots of progress to report.

After looking at the existing tables to use as a base for modding, I decided to build this table completely from scratch. The point of doing this table was to learn the tools and systems so I guess there is no better way of learning than doing everything yourself :)

So this is what has been done so far:

• All sounds have been sampled from the pinmame roms. The existing FP table only had four sampled sounds and they were captured from a recording of someone playing the table with a lot of other table sounds mixed in. The new sounds still sound kind of crappy, but they are clean and authentically crappy.
  
  
• Game rules have been scripted from scratch. As far as I know they are completely accurate to the original table, based on the VPX version of the table and watching a lot of gameplay footage of the actual table.
  
  
• Custom models for drop target and bonus target holes. Will anyone actual notice them? They will not. :) I'm trying to make this a accurate as possible, and I will know that they are correct, plus it was my first attempt at making a custom model, so I wanted to do something easy.
  
  
  
• Custom model for the plunger cover and cover bracket:
  
• Custom model for the giant pink backbox bezel.
• New HD models for the drop targets, bumpers, lane guides and metal pins. The default models for FP weren't designed to look good at 4k resolutions, so I made HD versions of the models when the upgrade was actually visible. On average this ended up tripling the poly count on the models, but the original was so low poly it only went from ~30 to ~100 on some of them. This will have no measurable impact on performance on any video card created in the last decade. It does have a subtle but noticeable improvement on the visual quality and allowed me to add textures to the base of the bumpers. You can see the default models render out with flat shading making it look cartoony. The HD versions have bevels and slightly curved surfaces to generate nicer highlights.
  
  
  
  
• All textures have been recreated and upscaled. All the art has either been redrawn or upscaled and hand retouched. The playfield and back glass art was separated into layers and remastered at 8k.
  
  
• Texture sets for "normal", "black light", and "white" lighting modes were created. The "white" mode is simply the back line art on a white background that I was using to test the ambient occlusion experiments, but it has really started to grow on me, so I might include it or release a "black and white" version of table.
  
  
  
  
• Added Ambient Occlusion to all non metallic textured models. This simulates the shading you get when light gets absorbed bouncing in corners. It adds real dimension to 3d graphics even when there is no actual shadows. (Those will be added later)
  

So what's left?

• Lighting, lighting and more lighting! Other than switching between the normal and black light modes, there is no lighting other than the main light. I will add all the GI lighting and try to make it look as realistic as possible. For example I am trying to replicate what happens when the drop targets are backlit. Here is a mockup in blender. I don't know how close I will get to this but I will try my best.
  
  
  
• Better looking plastics. I've done some experiments, and I have a couple that show some promise, but I need to make sure that it works in all lighting conditions. This is just for the flat plastics. This table doesn't have any ramps, so I don't have to worry about those... yet. :)
  
  
• Adding texture swapping support into the SPSColorSequencer. If you have seen what @TerryRed has done with swapping baked lighting textures when lights go on and off then you get the idea. I would like to get that automated so the textures are adjusted just by changing the state or color of the light. This should also work with the chrome textures used on the metals. If you assign all the metal items near a particular light it's own chrome texture, you should be able to use this technique to show reflections on the metal when the light turns on. This is of course contingent on figuring out how to render proper sphere maps.

That's pretty much it for now. Here is a video showing of the black light mode and toggling the ambient occlusion off and on. Let me know if you think I should include the Black and White version as part of the table, or even as a separate table release.