Shockman's Bowling Machine

[rpbizzle47]

have a photo of a dart cabinet, love that game two. Got two double bull's eyes on one turn last night I did. Anyway I almost forgot, it's going into the backdrop. I was thinking of an occupied warehouse/pub setting. perhaps a speek easy, with a wall and doorway behind the bowler, the dart cabinet against the wall and a pool table visible in the other room.

Backdrop?! Thats sounds very interesting.

Where do I get a copy of the machine?!

 

[Shockman]

I'll trade it for AJ's E-mail address.

 

[Shockman]

Here is a demo. It will show the aim bar I made. The new ball in hand is random, so you can't just pick an angle, it has to relate to where you have the ball to begin with. Shots are not reported in this demo, and washouts will have random elements. Just a human interface demo/test.
If you download it, tell me how you like it and what you think would make it better.

 

[tiltjlp]

I reeally like what you've done with this Bowler Phil. My only suggestion would be that you move the aiming meter to just above the pins, on the bowler itself, it that's possible. That would allow the player to be more involved in, and focused on the game itself. It would be cool if after the game the entire score sheet could be displayed, although that might not be possible.

I played 2 games, and had scoring errors in both of the games. I'm posting SS of the score sheets. The first game I had a miss on 3rd frame's 2nd ball. Instead of registering a miss, the game went to the next frame, and ignored the 3rd frame completely. In the other game the error happened in the 10th frame

 

[Shockman]

It's hard John, but trust that the scorin' 'll work. I can score a game of bowling and instruct the machine, it's the scrolling, the constant changing, it make's me want to take a hammer to the machine. All ten frames have to show at once. I don't know why I let you talk me out of it in the first place.

 

[tiltjlp]

It's hard John, but trust that the scorin' 'll work. I can score a game of bowling and instruct the machine, it's the scrolling, the constant changing, it make's me want to take a hammer to the machine. All ten frames have to show at once. I don't know why I let you talk me out of it in the first place.

I don't doubt you'll get everything working right Phil. And I sure don't remember trying to talk you out of displaying all ten frames, in fact I probably mentioed my Buddy Bowling, which displays all ten frames, and which took the skills of 4 or 5 guys to solve all the scoring issues. But I have to tell you that you've really impressed me with the development of this game.

 

[Shockman]

Yes, I was kidding about talking me out of ten frames.
You are right about the aimer too. You should not have to look back and forth between seeing where the ball is and what angle you want to throw it.

I'm not saying that I am willing to address either of these issues, but if I did it might be thusly.

 

[tiltjlp]

Yes, I was kidding about talking me out of ten frames.
You are right about the aimer too. You should not have to look back and forth between seeing where the ball is and what angle you want to throw it.

I'm not saying that I am willing to address either of these issues, but if I did it might be thusly.

I wouldn't have put it past me to have said something about the frames, and I sure wasn't going to look through the entire thread to see if I had or not. As for the aimer, that was just a suggestion, and some feedback. And of course your attachment doesn't show up for me. Which is weird because most of them do.

 

[Shockman]

Well after I thought about it, I think it was you that caused me to go with less frames displayed after all. I had 10 frames and you said you could not read them because of size and color, so your not going to weasel out of this one.

No, this one does look good I think. better than before. It shows all ten frames, five a side, the same size and color as before. The aimer bar is on the machine. on the faceing strip that covers the end grain of the lane boards. You will like it, as long as you can see the dark spot on the bar.

 

[tiltjlp]

Well after I thought about it, I think it was you that caused me to go with less frames displayed after all. I had 10 frames and you said you could not read them because of size and color, so your not going to weasel out of this one.

No, this one does look good I think. better than before. It shows all ten frames, five a side, the same size and color as before. The aimer bar is on the machine. on the faceing strip that covers the end grain of the lane boards. You will like it, as long as you can see the dark spot on the bar.

Now I do remember mentioning the font color, and probably the size too. And to think that you were kind enough to listen to me, which many authors don't, but that's their right and privledge. With the care and attention you're showing to this game, I'm sure I'll love it, and play it a lot.

 

[highrise]

Did you sort out the drift problem? I think you have to lower the friction of the table.

 

[Shockman]

friction? How?

 

[rpbizzle47]

The last WIP was number 11. Has there been any other WIP releases I haven't seen?!

 

[Shockman]

WIP releases? We need a forum for WIP Releases. If it was numbered then it was not the last one. The last one is the last one in this thread but was I'm afraid before a couple of major changes. One's done, the gage, and the other is the scoring display with 10 frames, which is almost done and which a screen shot was shown buts not been posted.

 

[tiltjlp]

WIP releases? We need a forum for WIP Releases.

There aren't enough Beta releaes of WIP to warrent a seperate forum. What few are released are done so the way you've done it, as an attachment. I doubt if that will be changing, at least not for now.

 

[Shockman]

It shouldn't change, just a nother joke. I usually try to dump the question marks with rethortical questions and jokes. WIP releases?

 

[tiltjlp]

It shouldn't change, just a nother joke. I usually try to dump the question marks with rethortical questions and jokes. WIP releases?

I'll keep that in mind for now on. The main thing I have against beta releases is that, unlike you who keeps working on the table and uses feedback to improve the game, most authors tend to abandon their tables at the beta stage. And the majority of them still need a boatload of work done still.

 

[rpbizzle47]

It shouldn't change, just a nother joke. I usually try to dump the question marks with rethortical questions and jokes. WIP releases?

Maybe I didn't use the correct words for what I was trying to say. I just hope the machine is completed soon. It's been a very long time and I'd really like to play the finished product. I'm sorry to keep bugging you about this, but I didn't expect it'd have taken this long to complete. I guess good games take time! :)

 

[Shockman]

No, to tell the truth, I've been preoccupied. I'm working on it again real heavy. ETA 2 weeks max. Chill though, I need to feel good to work in this kind of creative or artistic way.
Thanks Ron.

 

[rpbizzle47]

No, to tell the truth, I've been preoccupied. I'm working on it again real heavy. ETA 2 weeks max. Chill though, I need to feel good to work in this kind of creative or artistic way.
Thanks Ron.

No...Thank you! I know you put a lot of time into creating what I think will be one of the best, if not the best VP bowling machine ever created.

Again, Thank you so very very much for all your work.

 

[Shocky]

Hey, you need a rollerskate to make that thing go? Come on, 'Get 'er done!

 

[rpbizzle47]

So, is the bowling machine going to be finished within the two weeks you mentioned Shock?

 

[Shockman]

Finished? When I said? Right. Those that know me better probably wonder if it will ever be finished (I normally don't finish VP things, I start them, or mod. them) release yes that will happen, but finished, never.

Never mind.

I'll release what I have so far. You might like it, and you might not.
Scoring got messed up. I had it almost right, but now it's worse.

Just don't worry about the scoring. The new gage is kinda cool I think. A lot of spares can be made. A little bit more sound.

Like usual don't bitch about anything that don't work. And give feedback.

 

[highrise]

friction? How?

Sorry, didn't see this till later. It's possible to change the friction of the table by using a 'friction timer'. This basically runs in the background all the time and makes the ball behave like it's on a different surface. Have a look at Nicolas' Billiards engine to see how this can be done.

 

[Shockman]

The lane graphic (the part that looks different) should be changed from returnlane to bowlinglow, sorry.

Thanks highrise.
It will not have a drifting problem. I don't want anything that runs all the time, but have found that changing the slope to zero only while the ball is sitting there in placement and aiming/power mode then back when thrown works a treat.