STAR WARS: Pinball Unleashed - 46"/32"/DMD Widebody Virtual Pinball Build

[Gamester]

Hello All,

I have been watching the Arcade and Pinball emulation scene for many years now, and in 2009-2010 I built my first arcade cabinet, which some of you may have seen here before. I knew at the time that I wanted to build a pincab as well, but I needed some time to recover from the arcade build (both mentally and financially), so the whole pinball idea pretty much sat on the back burner for quite sometime.  So then last year I stumbled upon a pinball build that was unlike anything I had seen. I was totally shocked at how far the hobby had come!  Force feedback?  REAL DMD?  Interactive lighting?  These were all just dreams before. As soon as I saw that all of these things were now possible, I knew it was time. I HAD to have one of these cabs...

So for the past few months, I've been lurking on the various forums and soaking in as much knowledge as possible, all the while strategically purchasing and stashing parts as the opportunities presented themselves.  Well my parts stash has now reached critical mass, and it's time to get this show on the road!

I struggled for quite a while deciding what theme I wanted to use for the cab.  I bounced between a WWII theme, Indiana Jones, among others. Then I saw the video announcement for Zen Studios' forthcoming Star Wars Pinball tables, and it hit me that I had not really seen any well done Star Wars themed cabs. So I'll thank Zen for the inspiration, and Disney for giving me 'A New Hope' for the Star Wars franchise with their purchase of its rights from Lucas. I've been a huge fan of the original trilogy since childhood anyway, so Star Wars really is a natural choice.

Incidentally, I put a bug in Zen's ear begging them to add dual monitor support to their future PC release of the game to make the game pincab friendly. I even pointed them to Russ' great PinDMD and urged them to support that as well (knowing that it would probably be a long shot).  Their company line is 'Pinball Everywhere'.  My assertion was that it's not 'everywhere' if it's not on the cabinets purpose built for the job, and that there would be no more impressive way to show off their game than on such a machine...especially one that's Star Wars themed.    They wrote me back and said that they were discussing my request, so we'll see what happens. I would love to be able to showcase their game on my cabinet.  But I digress...

So without further ado, presenting...

Here are the specs:

- Cabinet

• Widebody based on the popular Williams plans by Mameman.  Backbox widened to properly fit 32" TV
• Two 4x8 sheets of cabinet grade oak plywood
• 1x2" boards for playfield TV rails, and various braces/supports throughout the cabinet

- Screens

• 46" Playfield: Samsung UN46ES6003 Super Thin LED LCD 1080P
• 32" Backglass: Samsung UN32EH4003 LED LCD 720P (1366x768 resolution)
• Vishay LEE-128G032-1 Orange LED DMD (single pixel array...no segments)

- PC Setup

• Windows XP 32 bit Optimized Nlite Version
• AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core 3.4Ghz CPU
• Cooler Master Hyper-212 CPU Cooler
• Asus M4A785TD-M EVO Motherboard
• 4GB G.SKILL DDR3 1600 RAM (2x 2GB sticks)
• Asus GTX560 OC Video Card
• Samsung 840 series 120GB SSD
• Corsair CX600M 600W Modular Power Supply

- Sound System

• Infinity 5022i 5.25" Reference Speakers
• Infinity 8" 860W Reference Subwoofer
• Pioneer GM800 4 channel amplifier for 5.25"s
• Subwoofer Amplifier (TBD)

- Force Feeback (no pun intended)

• Zebulon's Shaker/Gear motor assembly
• 8 Siemens 3RT1016-1BB41 Contactors (feedback for flippers, bumpers and slings)
• Real Pinball Knocker

- Lighting

• Zebulon's Cree LED light bar (5 flashers)
• Two 21-LED Strobes
• LEDwholesalers RGB Color Changing Lighting Kit for under cabinet

- Electronics/Controller Boards

• Zebulon's new booster boards for powering the toys, flashers and strobes (this board simplifies the wiring of all the toys big-time)
• RussDX's PinDMD2 to control the Vishay DMD
• Groovy Game Gear LEDWiz for force feedback and lighting
• Ultimarc IPAC2 USB interface for buttons

- Cooling

• 4x Enermax T.B. Silence 120mm Ultra Quiet Twister Bearing Fans
• 4x 120mm chrome fan grills

- Buttons

• GGG Chromalite buttons for Start, Coin and Exit
• Bally Yellow Launch Ball Button
• Green Happ Arcade Pushbutton (for power button)
• IL Translucent Buttons (flippers)

- Miscellaneous

• Belkin Conserve Power Strip
• ATX power supply to power Zebulon's booster boards
• Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro (for tilt/nudge)
• Data East Coin Door

EDIT: Here's some pics of the final product:



















Video:



Here's pics of some of the parts goodies:







Vishay DMD...




Light Bar, under-cab lighting and Strobes...




Siemens contactors...




Zebulon's new booster boards to power all the toys...




Zebulon's shaker/gear motor assembly...




Ear candy...




More ear candy... (sub)




Cooling...




Currently in the process of configuring the PC/Windows, and then will start loading VP, HyperPin, etc. and try to get at least a couple tables going.

Well, that's all for now...[/list]

[yotsuya]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.........................

Bookmarking this one, definitely!

[wp34]

Subscribed!

A real DMD?  I don't think I've seen that done before.  Awesome!

[Louis Tully]

.

[Gamester]

@wp34: Yeah, the fairly recent addition of real DMD support was really a major tipping point for my decision to move forward on this project.  The cool factor is just WAY up there for me... 

@Louis Tully: LOL, well, I wouldn't say unlimited funds, but I will say that my philosophy is that if I'm going to do a project I'm going to do it right or not at all.  Hopefully my arcade build was representative of that.  And I can only hope my plan for this project turns out to be as badass in reality as it is in my little mind.  I guess time will tell.   

[rablack97]

Wow, there's parts in this build i've never seen before....

Welcome back gamester, looking forward to the show 

[Neil_S]

Hey, Neil from Zen here.  Pretty awesome looking set of components there.

It turns out that the general release may be coming sooner than we expected, and it will likely ship without any built-in support for pincabs because of that.

However, we're hoping to work with a few people who have these types of setups to get those features implemented over time via updates (but no promises yet!).  If we do decide to implement these features, we'll need some help in determining exactly how to handle them, testing them, etc.

Right now, we have on the wish list:
- Support for up to 3 monitors (Playfield, Blackglass, DMD)
- Positionable, rotatable, borderless windows for all 3 elements
- Support for custom backglass images
- Configurable inputs

We don't know anything about PinDMD2 and LEDWiz beyond the fact that they exist.  So we don't know how difficult it would be to support them.

[Gaaargh]

Drool ...

[Le Chuck]

No color DMD? 

Looks like you're off to a great start!

[Gamester]

Hey, Neil from Zen here.  Pretty awesome looking set of components there.

It turns out that the general release may be coming sooner than we expected, and it will likely ship without any built-in support for pincabs because of that.

However, we're hoping to work with a few people who have these types of setups to get those features implemented over time via updates (but no promises yet!).  If we do decide to implement these features, we'll need some help in determining exactly how to handle them, testing them, etc.

Right now, we have on the wish list:
- Support for up to 3 monitors (Playfield, Blackglass, DMD)
- Positionable, rotatable, borderless windows for all 3 elements
- Support for custom backglass images
- Configurable inputs

We don't know anything about PinDMD2 and LEDWiz beyond the fact that they exist.  So we don't know how difficult it would be to support them.

Hey Neil!  Thank you so much for popping in!  I think you've got the wish list pretty much nailed.  If you need any assistance with interfacing the PinDMD, I'm sure Russell Pirie, the inventor (www.pindmd.com) would be more than willing to work with you.  He's sold hundreds of the interface boards already, and is currently selling them faster than he can produce them.  If you would like to get in contact with him, I'm sure I could help facilitate that if needed.  Same goes for the other parties that have been involved with getting support for these features working for Visual Pinball and Future Pinball.

Stop by any time!

--Scott

[Aurich]

@Louis Tully: LOL, well, I wouldn't say unlimited funds, but I will say that my philosophy is that if I'm going to do a project I'm going to do it right or not at all.  Hopefully my arcade build was representative of that.  And I can only hope my plan for this project turns out to be as badass in reality as it is in my little mind.  I guess time will tell.   

Just a suggestion, but if you want to go all out one thing that I would highly recommend considering that doesn't add a ton of expense is running two sound systems in the cab. Now that VP can route the phsical table noises and the ROM sounds to separate outputs it means that you can add a whole level of realism where the flipper etc sounds really come from inside the cab. I'm definitely glad I took the extra time and effort.

I know you're over at the Hyperpin forums, so you can find the details on my sound in my build thread there: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?22144-Day-of-the-Pinheads-Widebody-46-32-DMD

[Gamester]

@Aurich- Thanks for the reply! I'm actually very familiar with your build, and have followed it closely.  I think I have an extra set of speakers that would be perfect for this, and will strongly consider it!

[drventure]

Schnikees, batman.

This should be interesting.

You need to turn the entire sides of the cabinet into that "lightning glass" stuff, colored blue with an image of the Emporer at one end, shooting blue sparks from his hands.

That component list is great info!

Bookmarked for sure

[Gamester]

You need to turn the entire sides of the cabinet into that "lightning glass" stuff, colored blue with an image of the Emporer at one end, shooting blue sparks from his hands.

Lightning glass?  Never heard of it... 

drventure, you are pure evil for planting such ambitious ideas in my mind.  The hamster in my head is now spinning off its wheel!   

EDIT: I bet these guys could make something I could use...but I'm guessing it would be oh so expensive...

[rablack97]

Well, they stopped selling those things man, I bought 2 for my build as well.

The newer versions cost mad $'s now, drventure gonna have you in the poorhouse

[drventure]

  I remember your build. Nice use of that glass, definitely.

Anything I can do to contribute to arcade delinquincy 

[codeena]

Looking forward to seeing your project...thanks for sharing and good luck!

[codeena]

Hey, Neil from Zen here.  Pretty awesome looking set of components there.

It turns out that the general release may be coming sooner than we expected, and it will likely ship without any built-in support for pincabs because of that.

However, we're hoping to work with a few people who have these types of setups to get those features implemented over time via updates (but no promises yet!).  If we do decide to implement these features, we'll need some help in determining exactly how to handle them, testing them, etc.

Right now, we have on the wish list:
- Support for up to 3 monitors (Playfield, Blackglass, DMD)
- Positionable, rotatable, borderless windows for all 3 elements
- Support for custom backglass images
- Configurable inputs

That would be awesome Neil; I'm a huge fan of all of your pinball releases, and this would make them even more awesome!

[Jumpman64]

 

Subbed, subbed & subbed.

[Gamester]

Computer is built and now the first signs of a pinball machine are starting to emerge.   Just a little screen test here.  Next step is to get the real DMD working...

[Nephasth]

I'm not a fan of Star Wars, but this project looks promising and is off to one hell of a start!

[Ryglore]

Oh man. I can't wait to see where this is going!

[wp34]

Yeah I need to get my first Gamester clone done so I can copy this one.

[TopJimmyCooks]

subscribe. 

[Drnick]

Nice job so far.  Are you posting over at Hyperspin as well?

[Gamester]

Nice job so far.  Are you posting over at Hyperspin as well?

Indeed I am.  The audiences are a bit different between the various forums, so I wanted to be sure to cross-pollinate. 

[Gamester]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.  Glad I'm not the only one excited about the project LOL.  I'll do my best to meet the high expectations I've set. 

[spoot]

Looks good so far, but tbh, the vid card concerns me on your build.  The newer tables have large hi-rez textures that affected me in my build which is quite similar.  I had a 560 which had texture issues in some tables (white squares) till I flipped over to a 650 for the playfield and the 560 for the backglass.

[Gamester]

Spoot, do you have any specific examples of tables that exhibited these problems for you?  I'd like to try a couple of them to see if I have any issues.  Possibly a driver thing?

[wp34]

Gamester's thread over on Hyperpin is quite interesting as the audience is more savvy about pin builds. 

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?23687-STAR-WARS-Pinball-Unleashed-46-quot-32-quot-DMD-Widebody-Build

I don't fully understand this (being a noob) but it sounds like a 16:10 ratio is desirable (and hard to find) for the back glass.  Interesting (and somewhat depressing) that a hobby that is so new "requires" a hard to find part. 

[Gamester]

@ wp34 - 16:10 is considered slightly more desirable because it is a bit closer to the aspect ratio of real pinball backglasses.  However, after seeing some backglasses on my 16:9 TV, it doesn't really bother me much.  If it did, worst case, at the expense of a little screen real estate, I could probably resize the image through the software settings, and since the TV I'm using has a pretty narrow bezel anyway, it probably wouldn't really be difficult to mask off the unused area and still have it look good.  I may toy with that later on to see if it's worth the trouble.

[wp34]

Thanks for that clarification Gamester.  I assumed it was something like that but when I searched for an explanation last night I could not find anything specific.  Just a lot of dead links to "good deals" on 16:10 ratio monitors. 

Looking forward to watching your progress!

[spoot]

Spoot, do you have any specific examples of tables that exhibited these problems for you?  I'd like to try a couple of them to see if I have any issues.  Possibly a driver thing?

Oh great, test an old man's memory.      Anyways, the newest VP9 FS Jurassic Park was one of them.  Trying to recall the other's......

Edit: Bram Stoker's Dracula VP9 FS

[Gamester]

Finally, a little DMD goodness...

The Vishay is great because it has a molex connector built in which allows for easy connection to a PC power supply...




To connect the DMD to the power supply, I took a molex 'Y' splitter and removed the 12v (yellow) wire on both ends, leaving only the 5v (red) wire and the two grounds.  Then extended it to about 4 feet long to give me plenty of room to move it around. Here's a pic with the yellow wire removed...




Then I just took the PinDMD2...




...and plugged it right into the DMD ribbon cable connector.




After I got the driver installed for the PindDMD2 and put the modified DLLs in place for PinMAME and Future Pinball, I took on the formidable task of downloading a number of tables and tweaking them to work properly with the 2-screen+DMD configuration.

Once I got all of the tables right (many hours of tweaking), and finally saw them running with the real DMD, all I can say is WOW.  It looks absolutely AMAZING.  I am giddy as a schoolgirl.  This thing was worth every penny!

Here's a little sampler.  These videos do NOT do it justice.  It is way brighter and more impressive in person.  As nice as my LCDs look, this thing absolutely is the visual centerpiece...

Future Pinball:



Visual Pinball:



And how faithful would I be to my cab theme without a Star Wars vid?




No idea why I can't seem to left justify these videos...

[Nephasth]

Great, now I gotta go clean my pants...

[nipsmg]

You are going to put me in the poor house.  Now I HAVE to build one of these.  Amazing.

[lordnacho]

Looks cool as hell and I'm not even a pinball guy.  I'll be over in a few to play it...where do you live? 

[griffindodd]

Nicely done it looks really great. I'm hot on your heels with a Wide-body conversion myself so I'll definitely be taking some tips from your build so far. I've been in touch with Zeb about his Shakers and power boards, how did you find the wiring and setup to be?

[Nephasth]

So, question... Will the DMD be doing anything when you're playing the SS and EM pins?

[Gamester]

@nipsmg - build one...you'll love it! 

@griffindodd - well really the only thing I've wired so far is the DMD.  The wiring won't begin in earnest until I get the cabinet built and start installing the toys.  And that's what I'm really excited about; in the videos above, all I have working is the displays, and I'm playing it through tiny computer speakers.  Once I get all the lighting, force feedback stuff and full-blown sound system going, it's definitely going to go from a game to an 'experience'.  Zebulon's booster/controller boards will simplify the wiring big-time if you plan on using lights and force feedback stuff.

@Nephasth - I haven't really played with SS/EM tables much yet.  I'm not sure yet if there is a way to display score information for those tables on the DMD, but I think there is at least a way to display a custom image using HyperDMD.  I'll probably tackle these items as 'phase 2' after the cabinet is built.  It'd be real easy for the build phase of the project to get off track if I distract myself too much with all the software configuration possibilities at this point.