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Built his own PINBALL machine AWESOME ****************
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ChadTower:

I've seen web pages and articles about it but didn't really go that far into it.  Supposedly to replace the head on an early SS pin but not drive displays.
yugffuts:
Interesting.  A google search for homemade pinball turns up a few, but they seem to have built some custom hardward to get it to work, and are at least a few years old.

I was thinking an add-on to VP, which would work like this:

Add a mapping feature for all switches that can be hit.  This would be targets, dropdowns,  slingshots, rolloevers, etc.  Bring up a mapping feature, which will list all these elements in a grid (so left slingshot can be assigned to any key, for example).  Similar to the Ultimarc IPAC configuration.

Then wire the left slingshot switch to that key on an encoder.  When you play the game, the ball hits the left slingshot, and passes that key back to the PC, which awards points (and drives the slingshot solenoid, somehow). 

It would probably be easy to do outside of VP, but if it could be added on, any existing scripts for games could be used.  Just recreate your virtual playfields and play the real thing.

Anyway, I'll stop hijacking this thread.  Maybe I'll start a new one about this...
ChadTower:

You do know you are loosely describing a pinball driver board, yes?
ptpeter:
damnit the website is down b/c of bandwidth.
yugffuts:
Yes, loosely. 

My point is, it should be fairly simple to interface VPinmame with an actual physical table, using an Ipac or other encoder to register the hits.  Offload the solenoids to a different board, and that should do it.

I kept poking around, and this looks like what I am describing.  They seem to be designing to play existing games without the old hardware.  Notice the key mapping features they use.  Wiring up the switches would be tedious but simple.  I may download and play with this for a while, although the hardware board they are testing is not available yet. 

http://www.pinmame-hw.com/
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