46" / 30" / 19" widebody fullscreen visual pinball project

[Silly Burrito]

Just curious, have any vendors contacted you about using your pinball cab as a base for mass reproduction? Maybe it goes against the spirit of BYOAC, but if that was offered as a complete machine or even as a kit, that would be awesome.

Very good work. You're making me want a dedicated pinball cab pretty badly.

[evilalive]

dream authentics perhaps?

[chris77]

Just curious, have any vendors contacted you about using your pinball cab as a base for mass reproduction?

No. I think mass production of these visual pinball cabinets is not lucrative, because its too custom. Everybody wants another detail, style or size, so its better to build your own.

cheers
chris

[chris77]

got a tip in the forums and ordered some mercury switches which I received today. 

I use it for front(top) nudging. works very well so far   love those miniswitches.

you can perfectly fine adjust this kind of mercury switch which costs only 2 bucks.  simply connect it to your ipac.

one hit --> one keystroke --> one virtual nudge

[njay]

Chris,

do you have a link where i can buy these switches?
would it work in my mini pin ? for left and right nudge?

[mwong168]

I ordered my mercury activated switches from ebay for $10.89usd shipped.  Here is the ebay link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mobilistics-Mercury-Tilt-Switch-Alarms-Lights-etc-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2c53db4100QQitemZ190385438976QQptZCarQ5fAudioQ5fVideo

[njay]

thanks also ordered two for left and right nudge

so basicaly

i just mount them on the bottom of my cab one facing left the other one right connect one wire to the ipac sw7 or so and the second to the ipac ground ?

or is the bottom of the cab not good enough and should it be higher?

[drventure]

Thanks for that link. Just ordered 3 myself.

Fantastic build BTW! I'm really wanting to do a pincab like that, but I gotta finish my first one first!

[njay]

lol we sold him out

but can anyone answer my question if mounting one facing left and the other right on the bottom of my cab is good enough to trigger it?

[chris77]

hey njay,

simply connect it to you ipac, one cable ground - the other swX. you can place it everywhere you want, bottom or sidewall is a good idea. just test it.

cheers
chris

[chris77]

updated the pc-specs on the first page.

cheers
chris

[pinballwizard79]

Your table is what made me decide to make a LCD pinball, thanks for posting it & documenting everything.

Prepare to be imitated  , If you get bored you can always offer me free advice 

[Jakobud]

Really impressive project.  Probably the best looking Video Pin Mame cabinet I've seen on here yet.  Great job!

[chris77]

got my powder coated (fine structure / dull finish) lockbar, legs and siderails today
The playfield screen is more "invisible" now.

I love that finestructure powder coat. The look and feel is like the original one.









cheers
chris

[chris77]

I have taken highres backglass pics via tripod with my 10megapixel cam of original running pinball machines (2560res, 6mb each).

check out the preview pic... more to come soon...

You can download each backglass at

===> http://www.mediafire.com/backglasses <===



Available so far:

Attack From Mars
Black Knight
Black Knight 2000
Creature From The Black Lagoon
Congo
Cirqus Voltaire
Earthshaker
Elvira And The Pary Monsters
Elvis
Fathom
FunHouse
Flintstones
Fish Tales
Gilligans Island
Gorgar
Guns N' Roses
Indiana Jones
Jack Bot
Jungle Lord
Monster Bash
Medieval Madness
Monopoly
NBA Fastbreak
No Fear
Pinball Magic
Pin Bot
Revenge From Mars
Ripleys Believe It Or Not
Road Show
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Spiderman Black
Scared Stiff
Star Trek TNG
Super Mario Bros
Star Wars Data East
Terminator II
The Addams Family
Taxi
Theatre Of Magic
Tommy
Tales Of The Arabian Nights
Twilight Zone
World Cup Soccer
Whirlwind
White Water
Xenon




stay tuned!

[Usul]

Hi Chris,

you got me as well! I need to build a virtuall pinball cab myself now and living in the same country as you do makes me more confident about the required resources and less concerned about being the only crazy one here 

One quick question for you: The Teufel system you are using is the basic 2.1 set for 120 Euros, right?

Thank you for the inspiration!

   

[chris77]

hi usul,

you are right, I am using the teufel c100 system for 120 euros.

cheers
chris

ps: good to know that there are other crazy people 

[gatordad]

Every so often you see a project and you say to yourself, I want to do one of those!

Beautifully done, and well excecuted!

It solves the problem on where to put all those pins!

What forums did you get advice from?
I want to poke around and see what kind of info is available.
I have no idea how to set up this software, are there guides available?

[chris77]

hey gatordad,

check out hyperpin forums at http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32 ... imo the best place for virtual pinball cabinets.

cheers
chris

[Malenko]

can you possibly do a side by side picture of MM and your Vpin running MM ? I know how deceptively real the vpin looks but what better thing to compare it to then an actual pin? Plus I think it'd be a neato picture.

[chris77]

here we go



cheers
chris

[juksu]

I wonder it the pinball tables are made in 3D or in 2D. With soon comin 3D-TVs the playfield would look like the real thing. =) Only problem that you have to wear 3D-glases to see it =/

[Malenko]

thats awesome, thanks. I can see there are some minor differences but the Vpin is VERY authentic!

[javeryh]

That is just sick.  I love it.  I really really need to finish up some projects so I can make one of these things...   

[mwong168]

I have no idea how to set up this software, are there guides available?

Why don't you check my virtual pinball build thread in my signature.  The first 2 posts in there go over how to setup Visual Pinball/VPinMAME and Hyperpin the front end.

[Creeper]

Man, I am so impressed with that. Nicely done. 

[jsm174]

Chris, this is fantastic work!

After seeing this a few months ago, I recently started building one. Luckily I was able to find a gutted Demolition Man cabinet on Craigslist. I then bought a returned 46D65U at Best Buy. So far the cabinet has been stripped down and the 46" LCD has been installed.

I think someone asked this above, but with the Demolition Man cabinet, we didn't need to relocate the flipper buttons. (Maybe they were lower than STNG because of the handles?)

I do have a quick question. In the states, I'm struggling to find a 30" LCD TV.

In another topic, someone used a 32" LCD. A 32" 16:9 LCD is slightly wider than 27". To use that, I'd have to notch the backbox. Also it seems like there is a big gap between the backbox monitor and the VFD monitor.

From your pictures, your 30" LCD pretty much fills up the entire area. Is there any chance you could share the exact dimensions an possibly a model number?

Thanks, -- Jason
 

[Miracleman]

Would an led tv work as well, or would it heat up and sag after a while cuz it's so thin?

[chris77]

thanks again guys for your kind words  

@ jsm174, imo the best place for 30" LCDs is ebay second hand market. My 30" LCD is a noname brand called "medion" with DVI input. Resolution is 1280x768 pixel. Perhaps you can try a 32" as well when you route a gap inside the backbox to slide the 32" LCD in?

@ Miracleman, an LED TV would work as well. I think there are no probs. An LED-TV produce less heat than a regular LCD-TV.

cheers
Chris

[jsm174]

Thanks Chris. I have a bunch of searchs on Craigslist and EBay. Hopefully I'll find one soon!

Just for size reference, I did some searches on Medion. The only 30" 1280x768 Medion LCD TV I could find a manual for was a MD41530.
According to that manual, it's display area is 643mm x 385mm (25 5/16" x 15 3/16").

The display area of a current 32" LCD TV (based on a Westinghouse SK-32H640G) is roughly 697mm x 392mm (27 7/16" x 15 7/16") .

So I'm guessing the Medion isn't exactly 16:9.

Thanks again, Jason

[chris77]

Hi Jason,

the Medion is strictly speaking a 16:9.6 / 15:9 , so it fills up a standard backbox a little bit better.

some calculations

16/9 = 1.77 (1280/720 = 1.77)
16/9.6 / 15/9 = 1.66 (1280/768 = 1.66)

cheers
Chris

[chris77]

Here is another vid of my virtual pinball machine playing lord hiryu's new Indiana Jones table... Truly one of my favorites. Thanks for this masterpiece!!

[GodSin]

That's it, I'm sold

Now all I have to do is talk the room mate into letting me build it and put it in the living room and once I talk him into it then will come the trouble of finding a old pinball cab in Vancouver to put it all into... time to hitup flippers downtown Vancouver first thing tomorrow to start pricing things out and get the room mate to use his Managers discount at BestBuy to get me a new LCD for it

I cant wait

[Usul]

That's it, I'm sold

Count me in as well. I will proudly follow our guru Chris who was the first to boldly go where no byoac dude has gone before.

[Miracleman]

As a tip for those looking for a 30in lcd, I spent months watching for one on craigslist with no luck.
Today I decided to call TV REPAIR stores here in Orlando FL and after 15min and 5 calls I found a guy who had a 2005 30in Vizio for $220 and was 5min away from my workplace..
Went and picked it up on lunch, easy peezy.
I had a Judge Dredd cab already, but knew the 30in was (I thought) the hard part, so now will get a Sharp 46 and something for the dmd.

[Miracleman]

Hey Chris, I see 2 of the 'L' brackets holding the bottom of the 30in lcd in place, but can't tell what else you did to secure it.
The head has 2 wood strips the original art glass rested against on the right and left, and I think your lcd is behind those.
Did you remove and replace those to mount it?
And what is behind the screen to keep it from falling backwards?
Thanks, more questions coming down the road!
Spencer

[jsm174]

Spencer, I had the same problem with the 30". I watched Craigslist and Ebay for two months and finally found a Philips 30PF9946D for $200. (I did spent about 5 hours driving though).

We are using the factory mounts on the back of the chasis with aluminum spacers and m5 screws. If you didn't get a DMD, I'd recommend getting a 15" LCD TV. (I picked up a Dynex at BB for $119). With that, the 30" and 15" both fit completely in the back box.

-- Jason

[chris77]

Hey Chris, I see 2 of the 'L' brackets holding the bottom of the 30in lcd in place, but can't tell what else you did to secure it.
The head has 2 wood strips the original art glass rested against on the right and left, and I think your lcd is behind those.
Did you remove and replace those to mount it?
And what is behind the screen to keep it from falling backwards?
Thanks, more questions coming down the road!
Spencer

good to hear the party goes on   

I had to make one of the wood strips removable (via 2 screws) to to install the lcd behind those. behind the lcd is a wooden distance-kepper, so the lcd slides in exactly. but you can also use the factory mounts with m5 screws as jsm174 said.

cheers
chris

[Miracleman]

We are using the factory mounts on the back of the chasis with aluminum spacers and m5 screws. If you didn't get a DMD, I'd recommend getting a 15" LCD TV. (I picked up a Dynex at BB for $119). With that, the 30" and 15" both fit completely in the back box.

Jason, thanks for the tip, I haven't de-cased yet, so I'll have to see what's back there.
I take it you mean the factory mounts for attaching to a wall mount, pretty clever!
How long were the spacers and what are M5 screws?

Nice fit on the 15in below it, but does that kinda push the 30in 'backglass' up a bit higher than it was as a normal pin?
And is your 30in 16:10 like Chris', or as my Vizio states, '15:9' ?

EDIT: LOL, I remembered I HAVE a '15.6' lcd tv packed in a closet I bought on Black Friday LAST YEAR, DOH!
I de-cased it and it measures 8 1/4 tall, is that the same size as yours?
I haven't de-cased my 30in yet as I don't want to make too big a mess in the house til the weekend.
If the 15.6 in is a little too tall I could router out a groove so it will sit 1/4 in. lower.
Jason, I think you just made Chris' design a step better since it appears we don't have to cut out the bottom of the head to fit a square monitor!
This will make transporting the game to any pinball shows much easier.
BTW, looking at the back of my Vizio, it has NO 'wall mounting' screw holes like all newer sets do.
I may have to go the wood block route.

Chris I forgot to ask, what are the 4 buttons on the bottom front of your cab, and would those and the protruding speaker covers make it difficult to move/transport your game 'traditionally', with lift carts pushing up on the bottom of the cab?

[chris77]

If the 15.6 in is a little too tall I could router out a groove so it will sit 1/4 in. lower.
Jason, I think you just made Chris' design a step better since it appears we don't have to cut out the bottom of the head to fit a square monitor!
This will make transporting the game to any pinball shows much easier.

don't forget the size of an original standard pinball dmd. I think an 15" lcd is too small (width) to display an original sized dmd/scoreboard. do you have exact dimensions of it (de-cased, width/height/depth), so we can check it?

you can take out the 19" lcd without probs, so you can lay down your backbox.

Chris I forgot to ask, what are the 4 buttons on the bottom front of your cab, and would those and the protruding speaker covers make it difficult to move/transport your game 'traditionally', with lift carts pushing up on the bottom of the cab?

the 4 buttons are volume +/-, open coindoor, and a shiftbutton (e.g. for pause/1-2-5 credits/vp options...).

the protruding speaker cover on the bottom makes it difficult for lift carts.  If you want to move your cab regularly, you could use a thin perforated sheet of metal and countersinked buttons to avoid this problem.