The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Software Forum => Topic started by: nipsmg on January 12, 2018, 01:50:43 pm
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(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364791)
After purchasing a SkeeBall Model H and following the Skee-Ball threads on BYOAC, I've started creating a suite of SkeeBall games to run in my cabinet. This thread will chronicle progress on the software. I plan on eventually releasing it publicly.
Most of the games ideas were taken from other software that's been developed by other members including ThatPurpleStuff and a posting by SJAAK. Others come from dart games.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364789)
Want to be a tester??
Info here : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1646011.html#msg1646011 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1646011.html#msg1646011)
Pi5 Support Coming This Spring / Summer -- Spare Time Permitting
Want to try out the Alpha SDK and E-Book for Creating Add-On Games?
Info here :
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1655066.html#msg1655066 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1655066.html#msg1655066)
Download the software with optical support -- alpha release
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1690637.html#msg1690637 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1690637.html#msg1690637)
Features:
- Resolution Independence - Defaults to 720p but will letterbox for any 4:3 resolutions
- Cross Platform - Made as a DesktopGL MonoGame project, it can be complied to run on Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.
- High-Score Keeping
- In-game instructions and game information
- Attract Mode
- Developer SDK (Developers can create new games and extend the platform via an SDK to be provided at release)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364768)
Video
Is youtube embedding broken?!
Alpha Gameplay Demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97h6z8fQizI&feature=youtu.be)
Graphical Menu Implementation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaGjzYSnkk&feature=youtu.be)
Attract Mode Demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAaO1qqhs9g&feature=youtu.be)
Games:
Bowling
Number of Players
1-4 players (selectable)
Game Description:
Bowling plays and scores just like normal bowling. The 10 - 50 hole award 1-5 pins respectively with the 100 pockets being an automatic strike or spare. There is a constantly rotating number of extra pins that can be added to a throw, indicated by a Extra Pins indicator on the game screen (idea taken from ThatPurpleStuff's bowling implementation)
Game Features:
- 1-4 players selectable at round start.
- Exciter Animations (With sound) for Strikes, Spares, Turkey, and Gutter balls
- Ambient bowling alley background sound
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364762)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364764)
Classic
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
Classic SkeeBall.
Get the highest possible score in 9 balls
Game Features:
- Authentic SkeeBall Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365009)
Skeeball Bonus
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FreeSkee by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Hit the same pocket repeatedly for up to 5x bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Bonus Multipliers by hitting same pocket multiple times.
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365782)
Skeemax
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FlashPoint by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Time your shots for maximum bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Constantly rotating bonus multiplier
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365802)
Stanger in the Alps
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
This is essentially the Cliffhanger game from ThatPurpleStuff's skeeball software with a name change (an ode to Lebowski fans).
Progress from 10 through 100 in a few balls as possible before time runs out.
Game Features:
- background music
- Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364772)
Whack-A-Hole
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
Whack-A-Mole.
Score the most points in 9 balls by trying to hit the mole. Only balls that hit the mole score.
Game Features:
- Background music
- Mole Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364774)
Skricket
Number of Players
2 (not selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on the classic dart game, cricket.
Each players gets 3 tries to attempt to hit the numbers listed on the left. After hitting a number 3 times, the player "closes" that number. If other players have not yet closed that number, the player can hit it again and gets the value of the hole added to their score. The object of the game is to close all numbers first with the highest score.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000 Cricket
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364770)
X10
Number of Players
1-4 (selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on the classic dart game (3/5/7/901).
All players start with 310 (or 510,710,910 depending on the game variant). The goal is to get to 0 first, hitting zero exactly. Each player takes turns throwing 3 balls each round. If a player goes under zero, their score gets reset to the score they had at the beginning of the round. The winner gets to 0 (exactly) first.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000
- Number of players selectable at round start
- Game Variant (310/510/710/910) selectable at game start.
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364756)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364758)
X20 ZAP
Number of Players
1-4 (selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on 321 ZAP from Merit Games (a popular game on the Scorpion 9000 Arcade Dart Board).
All players start with zero, and the goal is to get to the game score (320/520/720/920 depending on the variant) by hitting holes and adding the value of the hole to your score. Each player throws 3 balls each round. If the player goes over the game score, the overage gets subtracted from their round starting score, and they lose their turn. The winner gets to the game score first.
The Twist: If at any time while playing your score exactly matches another player's score, that player is "zapped" back down to zero and has to start from zero.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000
- Number of players selectable at round start
- Game Variant (320/520/720/920) selectable at game start.
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364760)
Riskee
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
This is a riff off "Skeel of 40s" from FreeSkee.
There is a "Bonus Chooser" to the right of the scoring area that starts off with the following bonuses:
- 2 Balls
- 4 Balls
- 6 Balls
- 8 Balls
- Clear Bombs
- 250 Points
- 500 Points
- 750 Points
- 1k Points
Scoring works as standard scoring with the following additions:
If you hit any hole other than 40, your score increases by that amount, and one of the open bonuses is replaced with a bomb.
If you hit 40, the bonus chooser spins. You are either awarded a bonus, or hit "Clear Bombs" or hit a bomb.
Clear Bombs will remove any of the bombs in the bonus chooser.
A bomb will force the bomb defuser to pop up. It will count down from 5.
If you hit a 100 pocket before time is up, the bomb will defuse. If you hit any other pocket or time runs out, the bomb goes off and you lose all your points.
Game Features:
- Animated graphics and sound effects.
- Bonuses (extra balls AND/OR points)
- High Scoring Ability
Gameplay Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be)
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365359)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365361)
ToDo
Add in high-score systemAdd final sound effects for classicSound Effects for 310/320ZAPGame Over graphics for classicAdd a sound effect for going over the game score in zap/x10Convert bowling scoring grid into drawable components (fixes text overlay on top of bowling exciter animations)Implement FreeSkee variantImplement FlashPoint variantRemove text-based menu and implement graphical menuFinish attract mode implementationImplement system-wide game instructions functionalityAdd system-wide game-over drawablegamecomponentAdd system-wide "You're up player X" component.- Code clean-up and refactoring
- Create sample game project for SDK
- Blog post for Game Creation
Add round displays for x10 and zap
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LOVE to see the dart inspired games!!! :applaud:
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Added sound effects to x10 / zap games. Updated first post.
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Started work on the graphical menu. This is the concept art and what the final menu system should look like:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365000)
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- Updated Classic graphics. The yellow is now an "Unlit" yellow color.
- Added "GameOver" sprite to Classic to flash GameOver
- Added "Winner" sprite to Classic to light up the arch for each 100 scored
- Added "skeeball song" sound effect for Classic when >100 scored
- Updated screenshot in top post and updated todo list.
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I've uploaded a video of the current alpha version. Happy to get feedback.
There's still a bunch here that's not 100%.
Is youtube embedding broken?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97h6z8fQizI&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97h6z8fQizI&feature=youtu.be)
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- Added system-wide instructions functionality
- Added system-wide "gameover" badge functionality.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365032)
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- Added system-wide game over indicator (can be overridden/hidden)
- Added system-wide "Player Up" indicator(can be overridden/hidden)
- Added PleaseWait indicator for dart type games to put a pause in between players.
- Fixed bowling scores drawing on top of exciter animations
- Added a seven segment display to display current round in zap/x10. Games limited to 20 rounds. (Higher for larger scores)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365040)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365036)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365038)
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Loving this!
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Thanks LeChuck.
I've made some more incremental progress on this.
I started adding in the menu screen pictured above. I've set up the code to dynamically load a logo and screenshot based on the game name to populate the menu. (This will allow users to add games in later via the SDK). The code is still far from perfect but getting there.
My goals are to try to get the main menu screen implemented and have an inactivity timeout on the menu go back to the main "launch" screen by months end.
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New video demonstrating completed menu system.
Menu system dynamically loads game type information from config file -- Allows for games developed via SDK to be added.
Dynamically loads logo and screenshot from content directory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaGjzYSnkk&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaGjzYSnkk&feature=youtu.be)
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Attract Mode has been implemented.
There are configurable timeouts for :
- Title Screen
- Attract Mode Screen
- Menu Screen
- Game Screen
When at the title screen, and the timeout occurs, a game is randomly picked and launched. AFter 10 seconds, the game will launch its instructions screen. 5 seconds later it clears. If a user hits any key while the game is showing in "Attract mode", it will dump right back to the title screen.
When in the menu screen, the game will dump itself back into the "Title screen /attract mode" loop after the timeout occurs. Any keypress resets the timeout.
When in a game screen, if the timeout expires without any user interaction, the game will dump back into the menu screen.
The video below shows the Title screen / attract mode loop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAaO1qqhs9g&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAaO1qqhs9g&feature=youtu.be)
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This is a cool project. I need to pick up a skeeball machine one of these days.
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Yeah that's probably why this thread isn't getting a lot of feedback. You have to have the space to house a skeeball machine, actually buy one, and then convert it to run via a pc. Probably 8 or 9 guys that have done that so far. Not that I don't want to mind you.
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Yeah, either that or build one like thatpurplestuff.
The good news is converting it to run a PC is stupid simple. All of the electronics come out with a couple of wingnuts and maybe 12 screws.
The switches wire right up to an ipac (note: .250 fastons not .187, made that mistake).
A 27.5 inch tv fits pretty perfectly in the top box and almost fills all of it.
And... this software is cross platform. Supposedly there's a version of monogame that will run accelerated on OpenGL ES. It takes all kinds of hacks and I haven't found a good step-by-step on how to do it.. but if I can I would eventually LOVE to just run this off a rPI and call it a day.
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Should add the 4-player Model S version with sounds.
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Would love to get the sound samples from someone, I’d totally be for it.
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Yeah, either that or build one like thatpurplestuff.
The good news is converting it to run a PC is stupid simple. All of the electronics come out with a couple of wingnuts and maybe 12 screws.
The switches wire right up to an ipac (note: .250 fastons not .187, made that mistake).
A 27.5 inch tv fits pretty perfectly in the top box and almost fills all of it.
And... this software is cross platform. Supposedly there's a version of monogame that will run accelerated on OpenGL ES. It takes all kinds of hacks and I haven't found a good step-by-step on how to do it.. but if I can I would eventually LOVE to just run this off a rPI and call it a day.
You could probably get away with an old netbook as well, it'd still be small and low power but you wouldn't have to mess with all of those hacks. I still want to build an outdoor skeeball, but it's just finding the time to design it and actually build it.
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Would love to get the sound samples from someone, I’d totally be for it.
I have a 4 player Model S CPU in storage...
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Awesome! If you feel like pulling that bad boy out at any point in the near future and getting samples I’ll commit to adding the 4p game. I’ll actually probably start working on it soon anyways, just minus the audio samples.
How does the 4P game work? Alternating turns? Anything special I should know about?
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So I looked it up. Looks like it’s 3 balls per player for 3 rounds. According to someone on one of the forums, there is ‘different music in the 3rd round..
I’ll have to do more research into how the game indicates the winner, and see if there are any other interface things I need to know about.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q82wF8giT0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q82wF8giT0)
Old video of mine...
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Is that buzzing the ball reease solenoid?!?
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Is that buzzing the ball reease solenoid?!?
Indeed it was. The guy I bought the 4 player kit from also sent me a spare solenoid. I swapped it out not long after I took that video, and the machine has had no buzzing issues since.
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I have a model H and there is always the concern about it crapping out which has made me think about a project just like this - and even more glad that someone has undertaken it. Any thought about output as well - IE like "Ring of Fire" (like the whack a mole) where the actual hole lights up (via a led strip or some such)?
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I have a model H and there is always the concern about it crapping out which has made me think about a project just like this - and even more glad that someone has undertaken it. Any thought about output as well - IE like "Ring of Fire" (like the whack a mole) where the actual hole lights up (via a led strip or some such)?
Yes, that's definitely on the horizon.
My goals are basically:
- Get machine refurbished and initial software done.
- Play test/get feedback on software.
- Add LED and LED controller.
- Update software / SDK to support LED output.
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New game added: RISKEE
Gameplay Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be)
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365359)
This is a riff off "Skeel of 40s" from FreeSkee.
There is a "Bonus Chooser" to the right of the scoring area that starts off with the following bonuses:
- 2 Balls
- 4 Balls
- 6 Balls
- 8 Balls
- Clear Bombs
- 250 Points
- 500 Points
- 750 Points
- 1k Points
Scoring works as standard scoring with the following additions:
If you hit any hole other than 40, your score increases by that amount, and one of the open bonuses is replaced with a bomb.
If you hit 40, the bonus chooser spins. You are either awarded a bonus, or hit "Clear Bombs" or hit a bomb.
Clear Bombs will remove any of the bombs in the bonus chooser.
A bomb will force the bomb defuser to pop up. It will count down from 5.
If you hit a 100 pocket before time is up, the bomb will defuse. If you hit any other pocket or time runs out, the bomb goes off and you lose all your points.
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Updated top post to reflect new games.
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I REALLY need to break through my procrastination and implement the high-score system... I just am wavering on exactly how to do it.
The software relies on the there being the following buttons on the machine:
Up, Down, Left, Right, Select, Back, Info
I'm thinking after a game if you have an eligible high score it'll pop up an instructions-styled window that says "enter high score" and will just have the 3 available letters, classic arcade style.
I was toying with allowing up to 8 characters, but having to scroll up and down through them with button pressed for that many letters could be a pain in the ass.
Opinions?
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I vote for 3 letters
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Very cool project! Looking forward to following this.
I also vote for 3 letters.
Jim
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FINALLY implemented a globally available high-score system.
High Score support can be (and is) enabled on a per-game basis.
The following games have high score support:
- Classic SkeeBall
- Riskee
- Bowling
- Wack-A-Hole
The following games do not have high score support
- Skricket - Scores don't *really* matter except against your immediate opponent. Having a high score doesn't mean you're 'better'.
- X10 - You win by hitting 0 - no high scores
- Zap - You win by hitting a number exactly, all "high scores" would be the same. Pointless
- Stranger in the alps - You "win" by getting to the top of the mountain. I first need to come up with a scoring algorithm for time left and number of balls used. Ideas?
Screenshots Below:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365776)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365778)
Video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EmrnjiWh10&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EmrnjiWh10&feature=youtu.be)
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Stranger in the alps - You "win" by getting to the top of the mountain. I first need to come up with a scoring algorithm for time left and number of balls used. Ideas?
How about 2 lists?
-- Fewest rolls
-- Fastest time
If someone manages to set a new best score on both lists in a single try, name them the "Peak Climber" until someone beats one of the scores and knocks them off the peak or beats/ties both scores and replaces them as the new "Peak Climber".
Scott
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That's actually not a bad idea, but based on the way I implemented high score recording globally, adding the ability for 1 game to score 2 lists would require too much rework.
I've defined a game state "CalculatingScore" where gameplay will freeze and allow for a score calculation animation to happen (much like how megatouch games "count up" the score based on various properties after a round. ) I'll probably have to add that in.
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Finally implemented a freeskee variant to the software:
Skeeball Bonus
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FreeSkee by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Hit the same pocket repeatedly for up to 5x bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Bonus Multipliers
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365782)
I'm getting pretty close to checking off everything I wanted to do before a first release (see list in first post). I'll be looking for beta testers soon. If you're interested, please let me know.
Note: You don't need a SkeeBall machine to beta test, there are keyboard keys mapped for each pocket and all machine functions.
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I have been using skeeball sounds captured from youtube videos because I haven't been able to find any high-fidelity recordings of the sounds.
I found a sound effect generator and a freeware music tracker program and I attempted to recreate them from scratch.
They're not perfect, but I think they're better than the crappy mp3s with background noise I was using before.
This is the "skeeball song" audio I've been using:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQFN35NObY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZQFN35NObY)
The recreated version is in the attached zip.
I also got the skeeball start jingle from a youtube video with a ton of background noise.
I attached a zip with the following files:
- SkeeballStart-Synth.wav - The "Game start" song for skeeball machines.
- SkeeballSong-New.mp3 - A remake of the skeeball song (I'm not a musician, and I tried getting the lower harmony notes by ear, but it's not bad)
- SkeeballPockets.wav - Synthd sound effects for scoring each individual pocket. The 4 player version of SkeeBall has sounds similar to these.
I'd love any feedback.
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I'd love any feedback.
Personal opinion... Model H sounds all the way. The model S sounds are not the ones from my childhood.
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I'd love to get an index and examples of all the model H sounds. if you know of any source let me know, I'll see what i can do to recreate them.
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I'd love to get an index and examples of all the model H sounds. if you know of any source let me know, I'll see what i can do to recreate them.
You might want to try one of those websites that has stock sounds you can buy.... I've had decent luck finding various arcade electro-mechanical sounds on those sort of sites.
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I think I'm done with games for now.
Should be ready for beta testing this week.
Added a FlashPoint variant:
Skeemax
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FlashPoint by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Time your shots for maximum bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Constantly rotating bonus multiplier
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365802)
Should be ready for beta testing this week.
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Valentines Day + long weekend with the kids = a bit of a delay in the initial alpha release.
Played quite a bit with my son and found some nasty bugs:
- Riskee (if the last ball hits the bonus wheel, the game is scored and ends prior to the bonus wheel finishing and scoring.. could result in either too low a score or improperly recording a non-zero score if a bomb was hit)
- High Score Bugs: Adding a high score results in all initials below the insertion point being set to the initials just entered.
Will fix these in the next day or so, then get a version out for testing.
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Fixed a bunch of bugs in Stranger in the Alps and Riskee related to the issue in the post above..
The issue I was having was something like this:
In Riskee, lets say the player is on their last ball, and they hit 40 to spin the wheel. What was happening was:
- Spin initiated
- Ball count decremented
- On the next game update loop, 0 balls detected, call game end
- Game end fired, show high score if score merits it
- Sometime after this, the bonus wheel spin completes
- Score or ball count is incremented (or decremented), but game is over and high score is already recorded.
I had to create a game event queue that would allow me to register game actions with a priority. High priority items always process before low priority items.
In the case above, this happens now:
- "SpinWheel" game event added with high priority. Since it's the only event, it starts executing immediately and is removed from queue
- Ball count decremented
- Update loop detects no balls left, adds "EndGame" event to the queue as LOW priority. Since Something is executing, this sits in queue
- Wheel spin ends. When the "SpinComplete" event fires, it adds the result of the spin as a game event to the queue with HIGH priority. Since the "wheel spin" hasn't completed, this sits in queue.
- The last line of SpinComplete() is Pipeline.ProcessNext()
- Since there is an item in the high priority queue, it processes first, lets say "Play sound effect and add score" event.
- Last line of "Play sound effect and add score" event is Pipeline.ProcessNext()
- The next thing in the queue is a low priority item.. End Game. EndGame is called and does the whole check/register high score and display GameEnd thing.
There's plenty of other occasions where this is an issue that I will eventually fix with the pipeline:
In Zap:
- Player hits the same number as another player
- Zap sound starts playing
- Please wait indictor comes up before the sound effect finishes and moves the score to 0
Plenty of others. These really are the last major nagging bugs keeping me from releasing an alpha for testing. I am hopeful for a weekend release.
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I would love to get involved in the beta test and what not. This is something I have been interested in for awhile now. Good luck and maybe we can talk a little more about the actual hardware side soon.
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If you want to be a tester...
I've got a PRE-Alpha release built that I'm happy to share with anyone who wants to test. I'm not quite comfortable making it globally available currently however.
If you're interested in doing some testing for me, please respond inline in the thread and I'm happy to send you a copy for testing. Please post any bug reports, etc in this thread as well.
Important things to know:
The current build assumes a Model H/Model S with physical switches. The way these machines score, is the ball drops through a hole, then rolls down a chute hitting every switch below it, THEN hits a switch in the ball return chute that i call "Ball Drain" on the way out. The 100 pocket switches are worth 50, the others worth 10 in classic skeeball.
Note: I WILL me making this an option in a future release. I know plenty of custom built solutions (and even newer real skeeball machines) use optical sensors that don't require a ball drain input. This will be configurable in the config file in the next alpha release.
For example:
If you hit 100, the score is calculated like this:
score + 50 for 100 switch
Score + 10 for 50 switch
Score + 10 for 40 switch
Score + 10 for 30 switch
Score +10 for 20 switch
Score +10 for 10 switch
BallCount -1 for ball drain switch
Because of this mechanic, all games OTHER than Classic SkeeBall register the first switch it hits, then NO OTHER SWITCHES until the ball drain switch is hit.
So while testing, you have to manually advance the ball count.
Default Keys:
- A-10
- S-20
- D-30
- F-40
- G-50
- H-left 100
- J-Right 100
- N- Ball drain switch
- Esc - Back / Exit
- Left/Right - Left / right in menu. Also left/right allow you to navigate through game modes for games that support it (310 and ZAP currently)
- UP/Down - Increase/Decrease Players. Only works in Bowling, Zap, and 310 Currently.
- I - Info / High Score (only works in "game over" mode in a game. Hit I once to see instructions, again to see highscore table (if game tracks highscore)
- Enter - Select / enter/ start game
So to test a 100 in Classic Skeeball, you have to hit H,G,F,D,S,A,N in order. (N advances the ball count)
In any other game, you hit the pocket ball then you HAVE to hit N before you can register another pocket. So to hit 40, you hit F then N.
SETTINGS:
The game is resolution independent, so you can set 4:3 resolutions and it *SHOULD* letterbox. There is a settings.json file you can inspect for settings.
You can also adjust the timeouts for attract mode, set fullscreen mode, etc.
I'm very open to comments, suggestions, etc.
Please remember this is considered PRE-ALPHA.. it's by no means complete, but is definitely playable.
I really appreciate any help anyone is willing to give to help squash bugs.
I'm also VERY, VERY interested in feedback on current sound effects, suggestions for in-game sound effects, music, mechanics, graphics, improvements, etc.
I'm also open for suggestions for new games/game modes.
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Thanks! I would very much like to help test your software. Let me know and I can PM you my email.
Jim
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Jim, sounds good, PM me your specs (processor/RAM/OS/version) and I'll send you a link to an alpha copy.
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For anyone on the fence about this build. Let me tell everyone that this is amazing. Please help out with the beta test.
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So, sorry for the lack of updates. Haven't gotten any feedback yet, but will be doing some work to shore up some bugs this weekend.
I spent a bit too much time on this int he beginning (at the detriment of some other home projects) so updates will be slow for the time being. Sometime in march I'll be ordering the cork and starting the restore, which will likely spark more updates here.
Still would love beta testers of the software (you don't need a skeeball machine, just a keyboard!). IF anyone else is interested, let me know!
Thanks!
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For anyone who had been following this at all... it's been a month and a half since my last update and I've accomplished....
NOTHING :(
Work hit a crazy stride and I've had some difficult clients taking up 100% of my time. I've made no physical progress on my machine and no progress on the software. I'm planning on changing that this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some kind of update. I'm taking Friday off work and my goal is to get the garage cleaned out, get the machine cleaned up, and hopefully look at getting it moved up into the garage so I can really start putting the finishing work into it.
This project is not dead. Stay tuned.
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And... here I am at work. Didnt' take today off :( Difficult clients win again.
Maybe this weekend. *sigh*
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This project is amazing.. I picked up a non working skee ball lightning and have been sitting on the fence to either replace CPU or going other routes. I have arduino, Raspberry pi and and a spare laptop. Also have an IPAC 2 left over from my Visual pinball Cab build. I love how you have several different games incorporated and will be waiting for your next release as my machine has optical sensors or I would have gladly helped test your first release. Anyways you have done an awesome job and look forward to your next release. :applaud: :applaud: :cheers:
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Stangx,
Thanks. I'm actually pulling the Skeeball out of the basement this weekend, and am working on the new scoring board. I'll be routing the slots for the optical sensors, so I should be able to start adding support in the next few weeks.
The optical sensors will allow me to add support for a lot more game modes. Ideally I want to get LEDs installed as well, which really opens up possibilities.
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Like stangx above, I just purchased a non-working skee-ball machine and I've been trying to decide on how to proceed. I would LOVE to have the setup you're working on, but would need some help getting it started. I have a raspberry pi and arduino I could salvage from another project, but would definitely need some guidance on setup. Count me in!
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That is great news nipsmg. I have all ready swapped out lane lighting to led. blue tooth controlled and sound activated. I ordered a led wiz, so all other lighting will be controlled by it. Looking forward to seeing more on your project. :cheers:
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Like stangx above, I just purchased a non-working skee-ball machine and I've been trying to decide on how to proceed. I would LOVE to have the setup you're working on, but would need some help getting it started. I have a raspberry pi and arduino I could salvage from another project, but would definitely need some guidance on setup. Count me in!
RW, I haven't gotten MonoGame to run on a RaspberryPi hardware accelerated.. yet. Apparently it can be done, but I've had a lot of trouble getting it working. Apparently OpenAL doesn't work, so you have to either use ALSA or compile an OpenAL library directly. There's a thread about it on reddit and on the monogame community forums.
If someone can figure out how to get it set up on RPI for me and give me an image, I'd be happy to be sure it runs properly on that platform.
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I've got a spare laptop, as well as an older desktop, I could use to test for you. I spent the day today troubleshooting since I've only had this thing for less than a week. Even if I can get it working, I'd swap out the insides to this project in a minute.
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Recent Updates
- Fixed issue in Bowling where game would freeze after game completion when less than 4 players playing.
- Fixed ZAP to allow special events like zapping a player to 0 to finish before game state changes occur (next player / game over).
- Fixed Skricket to allow special events and sound effects to complete prior to game state change.
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Started working on an integrated particle system for effects such as:
- stars when you hit a mole in whack a mole.
- Explosion and smoke effects when bomb explodes in Riskee
- Snow in Stranger in the Alps.
- fireworks / spark showers for winner animations
Still trying to figure out some weird quirks.
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Updates
Implemented new ParticleEffectBase class that wraps a MonoGame.Extended ParticleEffect in a DrawableGameComponent for easy adding to the component collection for drawing. ParticleEffectBase can be AutoTriggered or the entire effect can be given a lifetime. For example, if you want to set off a spark shower for .5 seconds every time something happens, you can set the lifetime to .5s and when you call .Trigger(location), it'll track lifetime and keep it emitting for 5 seconds, while the particles decay at their own defined lifetimes.
Added an "OuchParticleEffect" that appears over the mole when you hit it in WackAMole.
I should have a video demoing some of the particle stuff once I implement the "Explosion" particle effect in Riskee either tomorrow or Friday..
Progress is coming again.....
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THIS IS AWESOME!!!
I've got 5 Skeeball Model S's with 3 available for testing and would love to be involved in this.
I just started looking into this today and found that you have already done what I wanted to happen, and more!
Will this plug into the existing harnesses or do you need to rewire?
I look forward to following the thread!
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I have had the pleasure to test Major league SkeeBall and must say it updates and old skeeball machine into an up to date arcade machine. Games everyone can enjoy. Sounds and animation just add to the gameplay. I have stopped looking for a CPU to bring my machine back to original as the games you are able to play using this software gives an old machine new life with many new features. Well done thus far nipsmg
Help test this software you will not be disappointed. :cheers:
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THIS IS AWESOME!!!
I've got 5 Skeeball Model S's with 3 available for testing and would love to be involved in this.
I just started looking into this today and found that you have already done what I wanted to happen, and more!
Will this plug into the existing harnesses or do you need to rewire?
I look forward to following the thread!
\
All you'll need is:
- a display of some kind to put in the top of the cabinet.. (this one fit nearly perfectly: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JYHTV6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JYHTV6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1)),
- A pc/laptop to run it (I'm still hoping someone will help me get MonoGame running on an rPi, but nothing so far
- A keyboard encoder (a cheap joystick-based arcade encoder and Joy2Key might work too)
- Buttons for controlling it (up, down, left, right, select, info, back)
- Some wire and .250 fastons.
You could likely build a harness that connects to current wiring, but I just ripped that out and ran my own wiring to the switches. My cabinet project thread will get some more images/detail around that sometime in the next week or so.
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This is awesome! I would love to be involved in the beta testing. I have a custom built Skeeball machine that uses optical sensors for scoring, so I'm not sure if the beta software would work with it. If not I'm still willing to test it out on the computer. Let me know and I can PM you my email.
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Redcardkid7: send me your email via PM.
It does not currently support optical sensors, but I plan o implementing preliminary support very soon. Should be relatively easy to implement.
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It does not currently support optical sensors, but I plan o implementing preliminary support very soon. Should be relatively easy to implement.
I recommend using the Adafruit 2167 3mm beam break sensors (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2167).
- Extremely fast response time.
- Active low device -- when you break the beam, the white wire drops to logic low.
- They work with 5v (PC) or 3.3v. (RasPi GPIO)
3D printable mount available here (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2932740) on Thingiverse.
You can protect the sensors and wires using 1/2" x 1/2" C-channel aluminum (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-1-2-in-W-x-1-2-in-H-x-96-in-L-Aluminum-C-Channel-with-1-16-in-Thick-802657/204273938).
- Open side toward back of playfield.
- Cut a notch so the LED and sensor can see each other.
Warning: The prices on Amazon are really high -- $9.99 each or $20.23 for a set of 5. :(
If you order directly from Adafruit, they are only $1.95 each ;D . . . when they are in stock. ::)
Scott
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Pl1: NICE. I am planning on putting in the break beam sensors sometime in June. This is a bit easier than notching out the underside of the wood.
I will definitely look into these and the mount.
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Updates: (no new build yet)
Project / Build Environment:
- Added required DLLs directly into project to allow for automated builds in Visual Studio Online.
- Updated project to use MonoGame nuGet packages to allow automated build in Visual Studio Online.
- Implemented dev and main branch CI builds to prevent regressions.
- All code now released from VSTS code drops.
Title Screen Updates:
- Added new exitdialog graphics.
- Added Exit Dialog functionality for title screen to force confirmation of software exit.
- Fixed AttractMode keypress behavior to prevent accidental exits from the software.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368224)
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Alpha SDK and guide ready for testers who want to try their hand at writing add-on games!!
I've made quite a few updates, including the ability to load plugins. As such, I started writing an E-Book for the SDK that's a walkthrough on making a SkeeBall game.
I'd love for someone to test drive the SDK and the E-Book thus far and give me some thoughts and feedback. It goes from setting up a dev environment through creating the add-on, registering it, and getting the game to a fully working state with full game logic and text -only output. I plan on finishing up the book and the new game over the next 2 weeks.
Note, the game is written in MonoGame, and will require knowledge of C# and a windows environment.
If anyone is interested, please PM me!
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The first pass at the SDK Programming Guide is split into the following chapters:
The ebook is split into the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Getting Started
This chapter goes through installing monogame and setting up your dev environment to make plugin development easy.
Chapter 2: Hello, World! Creating a Basic Add-On Game
Chapter 2 takes you from no code, to creating a plugin with an Add-On game, defining the game metadata, and getting it to load in the menu, and launch displaying Hello, World!.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368382)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368384)
Chapter 3: Adding State Switching and Scoring Logic
Chapter 3 has the developer adding in game logic and text-based display, fully implementing the game logic into a playable, functional game with user switching and win detection.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368386)
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Finished a new chapter in the programming e-book and advanced the Tug-Of-War sample game!
Chapter 4: Adding Background Graphics and Scoring Displays
In this chapter, we add background graphics and digital displays for player score and balls left. We also walk through using color intensity to indicate the current player.
At the end of this chapter, our game is starting to shape up!
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368388)
The coming chapters will deal with
- Adding sound effects
- Adding animations and using timers
- Leveraging built-in Please Wait and Player Up Indicators
- Using the pipeline to schedule events
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I've come up with the final design of what the SDK sample game will look like:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368406)
The game will feature the following:
- Custom game start and player change graphics
- Animated foreground and background sprites
- Background crowd sounds
- Crowd reaction sounds for scores, getting close to winning, and scoring high or low
- Custom winning event and graphics.
It'll probably be my most "complete" game so far, and the SDK programming guide will walk you through building it step by step. Even if you've never coded before, you should be able to follow the guide exactly and end up with a final game, and an understanding about how it works.
I also made the following updates to the sdk:
- Updated screenshot in menu to be final screenshot
- Separated score box and background graphics
- Updated guide for rendering score box and background separately
- Updated screenshots in guide where necessary
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Finished a new chapter in the programming guide:
Chapter 5: Adding Sound Effects and Ambient Background Sounds
In this chapter, we walk through adding sound effects and background sounds. WE add an ambient background crowd sound, and add crowd reaction noises for things like:
- Hitting a pocket worth 40 or more
- Getting within 50 points of winning (Crowd chants "Go! Go! Go!)
- Crowd groans if you hit a gutter or are within 50 and don't win in that round
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Finished a new chapter in the programming guide:
Chapter 6 - Adding Background and Player Sprites
- Added crowd sprites
- Changed rendering order of score boxes so crowd is behind boxes
- Added TugOfWar sprite
- Animate crowd sprites so the crowd on the side of the current player jumps up and down when it's their turn
- Animated move of the TugOfWar sprite left or right depending on current score
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368604)
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I'm getting towards the end of the Programming Guide for the SDK. Once that's done, I will be releasing a public beta of the game and programming guide.
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Stock Game Updates:
- Riskee:
- Added background music.
- Amplified "add bomb" sound effect
- Stranger in the Alps:
- Added High (actually ,low) Score Tracking for fewest number of balls
- Implemented pipeline delays to support high score tracking.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368608)
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I'm definitely interested in testing. Do you have any plans to support relay controls for ticket dispensers? And ball dispenser?
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I hadn't thought about ticket dispensing, but no ball dispensing, no. Many of the games are time-based not ball-based. That's an issue with legacy rocker-arm style ball dispensers that only allow 6 or 9 at a time.
I'll work on getting a test build to you, but am going on vacation tomorrow so it might have to wait until I get back in a week :-/
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Awesome looking forward to your message containing the build. I guess I could wire it up so that when a coin is inserted it releases the relay to dispense balls and that after a certain time period it locks the balls in again. But definitely interested in ticket dispensing. My kids love tickets and I can have them redeem them for prizes
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Awesome looking forward to your message containing the build. I guess I could wire it up so that when a coin is inserted it releases the relay to dispense balls and that after a certain time period it locks the balls in again. But definitely interested in ticket dispensing. My kids love tickets and I can have them redeem them for prizes
@amusinggestures - check your PM
@everyone - sorry for the lack of updates. Between work and vacations I have been nowhere near able to dedicate time to this, but will pick it back up soon.
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Been working on plans to retrofit a pinball size/type skeeball. this would be awesome to use with that. I would love to get a version to try it out. Let me know if that is still possible. Thanks Scot
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So how hard do you think it'd be to make a decent skeeball machine? I'd like to make something that could be kept outdoors (could be on the porch if necessary) as I don't have the room.
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An all weather Skee Ball machine would be cool.
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Watching, just picked up a project machine and very curious how this will play out. Missing the marquee on mine so liking the lcd replacement. I've used ipac on a mame cabinet before. So basically imagining ripping the guts out of mine and adding a Pi with Ipac. Curious which switches you are using. Would love to test the software out too!
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I would love to test this out. I've just picked up a beer ball unit that has a build in LCD and PC... I'm sure I'll have to hack something up to make it work, but that shouldn't be a problem.
My background is software development. Mostly in C# if you need an hand with anything I'd love to help!
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Shark and zimmer: check PMs.
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Finally got back to this project. One side of new optical sensors are installed. Other side should be done Friday. Will post video of nipsmg games in action. Amazing work nipsmg :notworthy: :notworthy: :applaud: :applaud:
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As was mentioned in an earlier post, so few people have room for a SkeeBall machine, but I've always loved physical interaction games like this.
I could see the software being applied to a custom build in the footprint of a traditional arcade cabinet that plays similarly to those handheld 'pinball' games, or a pachinko machine. An inclined pegboard with cutouts/catches, flippers at the bottom, and standard pinballs. That would allow for an arbitrary number of holes as well. The play field could be constructed by a series of interlocking 3d printed plates.
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I've been working with my Beer Ball machine, to try and see if I can interface this software with the minigen board that's already in it.
Beer Ball has a PC in the scoreboard that connects to the a minigen controller board under the lane via RS232 Serial.
I was able to capture some packets and make sense of reading some of the packets. When putting the machine into diagnostics mode, it sends out a diagnostics status request packet which returns a machine state with all of the sensors, and switches encoded into two bytes. I've got that down a working quite well I should be able to have a program that simulates keystrokes or whatever is needed to run this game.
I do have to figure out if I can force a ball release. The strange thing about this game, is that the PC is hooked to the board, but it appears the board does it's own thing and just reports the score back to the PC when polled. Pretty much like it could run without the PC's beer ball software. (Which I haven't tested) I'd like to keep physical modifications to the machine to a minimum, and reversible.
A couple problems I see for me right now are:
1) The machine might not let the me trigger a ball release (I don't know this for sure, but I don't see a serial packet that's job is to trigger the ball release)
2) The mingen board seems to be responsible for the audio. Some other games from BayTek have an audio input on the minigen board, but beerball does not, so I might have to bypass the speaker or see what happens adding the audio input jack to the board. If that doesn't work having a separate audio system when running something other than beer ball mode.
If I can't get the machine to let me trigger a ball release I might be forced to make a machine modification... Another option is to double up on the sensors so that each system runs independently of each other.
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Great looking front end - what do I need to build one? I have wanted a Skee Ball for a while, but no luck finding one - If I build one what HW do I need? Pi, PC or ??
thanks
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Geoffb, where are you located?
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Finally got back to this project. One side of new optical sensors are installed. Other side should be done Friday. Will post video of nipsmg games in action. Amazing work nipsmg :notworthy: :notworthy: :applaud: :applaud:
Don't know how I missed this. Looks great. Why is the game so offset on the monitor?
Sorry there hasn't been much progress on this.. work has been hell. I'm also working on a MAME project simultaneously. I have my optical sensors and mounts, I'll probably end up doing something with them in the spring, which means updating the system to allow for optical switches and not require the ball drain switch.
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The offset was due to windows update. Looks perfect now. I too have built a full Mame system and a visual pinball cab. Full VR setup with Sim Racing at the other end. Seems though after a few beers everyone ends up on the skeeball. I put wire switches in as I needed up and going quickly for a child's birthday party. One side of the optical sensors are done. Will now wait till you update to optical to do mine. Thanks again for all the time you have put into this.
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All optical sensors are now installed and working great. The only game that does not score correctly is classic skeeball as the key mapping is different from the other games. 100 holes score 50, 50 to 10 holes all score 10. Any way to change that would be awesome. Other than that the games are all scoring and working great. Put a speaker system behind the TV, so now the games with sound are even better. Gotta love games with sounds it adds to the whole experience.
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NICE. It seems like within the next week or so the average temperature in my garage should rise up above negative 4 Billion degrees Fahrenheit, and I'll get back to work on the skeeball, so I should be motivated to make some updates and to able to implement support for optical sensors.
Stangx: how did you handle "gutterballs"?
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The sensor is right where the ball starts to go down the return lane. That is why you can't throw your shots too quickly. Has to register ball count before next ball can score. Here is a pic where the gutter sensor (ball counter) is. Also I used existing wires in the machine. 5.5V power supply with sensors hooked up to an I-pac2 from Ultramarc. For the key mapping.
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No new updates on the software (yet), however, I wanted everyone to know this runs PERFECTLY on an Atomic Pi. $35, windows 10, hooks up via HDMI, works full speed. Just pulled out he old PC and mounted this in the cabinet with standoffs.
Perfect, cheap ($35 ish) solution.
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Is there somewhere I can buy a Pi with this SkeeBall loaded on there and how to connect the scoring sensors and buttons? I’ve built a Mame, so I think I could get it working if there were directions how to wire it all up. This looks so awesome!
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nope.. and I'm having some issues with the Atomic Pi. Turns out--- it works fine in windowed mode, but not so much in fullscreen (no audio in fullscreen).. which is infuriating.
I may switch to linux, which will be *my* first test of the cross/platform capability of the code. It *should* in theory just run on monogame 3.6 on linux, but i've never actually tried it.
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I bought a project machine and would be happy to help test. ( Also a Beerball ironically.) I have built a Mame Cab, but it was a challenge!
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Watching, just picked up a project machine and very curious how this will play out. Missing the marquee on mine so liking the lcd replacement. I've used ipac on a mame cabinet before. So basically imagining ripping the guts out of mine and adding a Pi with Ipac. Curious which switches you are using. Would love to test the software out too!
I'm using the stock switches, I just hooked them up to an iPAC-2. Make sure when you say a Pi, you mean AtomicPi, NOT a raspberry pi. I have not successfully gotten this to run on a Raspberry Pi yet.
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nope.. and I'm having some issues with the Atomic Pi. Turns out--- it works fine in windowed mode, but not so much in fullscreen (no audio in fullscreen).. which is infuriating.
I may switch to linux, which will be *my* first test of the cross/platform capability of the code. It *should* in theory just run on monogame 3.6 on linux, but i've never actually tried it.
I don't know if this helps, but I tend to make most of my apps run in "fake" fullscreen mode. By fake I mean you just take the window, remove the borders and auto size it to the desktop upon startup. Fullscreen tends to cause problems with arcade software, so I try to avoid it.
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Howard:
I can do that. -- I'm just annoyed by it. It worked fine on the old PC, but there are some notorious issues w/ the Atomic Pi and audio drivers. I'm build on MonoGame 3.6, and I think 3.7.1 is out, so I'm going to try to update to the latest version and recompile and see if it was just a monogame issue.
I specifically built auto-scaling into the engine to support variable resolutions. I don't know if that will work right with the window, but it might.
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Welcome to my world. People don't realize that the majority of software development time is fixing fiddly bugs or compatibility issues. It's the main reason I dramatically scaled back what I make for the hobby... getting it to work on my machine is easy, it's getting the damn thing to work on everyone's machine that gets you.
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Yeah.. I've got a little more work to do re: supporting optical sensors, then I'm going to open source it. I'd love people to contribute to it and extend it.
I'm not going to sell it, so I don't really care.
And that way... got a problem on your machine? Here's the code and some instructions, happy debugging! :)
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I am trying to figure out what to buy and wire up in advance of the software coming out. Any suggestions? Is there a thread somewhere on the physical build?
• a display of some kind to put in the top of the cabinet.. (this one fit nearly perfectly per this thread: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JYHTV6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1),- I’ll size this to my beerball machine and see if it will work.
• HDMI Cable
• AtomicPi
• A keyboard encoder. Do I need something like a KeyWiz or IPAC-2?
• 7 Optical sensors- suggested Adafruit 2167 3mm beam break sensors
• Amp and speaker
• 7 Buttons- (maybe joystick encoder if the buttons will be on the other side of the machine)
I would also like to see LED support. It may already have this, but it would be cool when starting another game (or just having a button for it) if it would make the sounds like when it releases all the balls.
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Just a heads up, I do not have support for optical sensors yet. You can buy them, but I won't have that support implemented any time in the next month or so as I just started a new job. I have them too, but haven't implemented them.
The scoring for the classic skeeball game relies on the ball hitting every switch on the way down, which won't work with optical sensors.
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I took howard’s Suggestion and I compiled a windows version of the app with a borderless full screen window... and it works perfectly with sound. It’s a pity the atomicPi is a limited run because this is an amazing solution for <$50.
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I’m hopeful that the RPI4 has a non-experimental OpenGL driver that works with monogamies. If it does, I’ll probably end up just imaging them with Linux and selling a conversion package.
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I'm curious to any of you guys using this, how have you wired up your controls?
I just somehow miraculously won some legit skeeball rail covers. I now want to finalize my control setup, but I'm not exactly sure how I want to do it/ where i want to put the buttons.
Also, I am (as we speak), working on optical support.
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So-- to talk this out a little bit before i move forward.
Optical Support is going to be tricky, because there are different ways to implement, the two primary ways being:
Ball drain optical switch in the Rail
In this setup, the optical switch is put where the ball drain switch is in a normal skeeball machine. In this setup, every ball will hit the ball drain. So when you score a pocket we'll have to add a "score increment" to a variable, and every time a ball hits the drain if the score increment is >0, we'll have to decrement it. If "scoreincrement" is 0, it means we count it as a gutterball, no score, or whatever that means.
This is NOT the ideal setup becuase we will be unable to tell the timing of when the zero score happened (this may matter for some games).
Scenario:
- - Throw 3 balls rapid fire
- ball 1 could go through the scoring hole (say 50), starts rolling down chute sets scoreincrement =1
- ball 2 misses all pockets and ends up in the drain, subtract 1 from scoreincrement, scoreincrement = 0
- ball 3 hits a scoring hole, (say 50) adds one to scoreincrement (scoreincrement =1)
- ball 1 comes through the ball drain, and sets scoreincrement = 0
- ball 3 comes through the ball drain, scoreincrement is 0, recording a gutterball.
Why is this bad?
If we were playing bowling, the "gutterball" was recorded as the 3rd ball when it was actually the 2nd, so you end up with a strike in this frame instead of what you should have gotten, a 5 in this frame (5 -) , and a 5 as the first ball of the next frame.
The timing is off here. This might matter in a game like bowling, where the order of the gutterball matters.
Optical Switch spanning the scoring box on the bottom for "gutters".
This woudl be ideal, because we can disregard a ball once it's recorded, and we'll know when a ball misses the scoring holes entirely. I'm worried this might be susceptible to "bounce" if the ball bounces or something causing it to record multiple gutters.
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Current physical switch implementation
As it stands right now for physical swiches, we're always "Waiting for ball" once a ball hits a scoring pocket, because when it ball hits one of the higher pockets (say 50), it hits ths switches for 50,40,30,20,10 and ball drain. so we have to "turn off" the lower switches until the ball drains out. This is annoying as it prevents fast-throw and speed type games, because you very often don't end up getting scored the 2nd time, or you might even end up with a lower score depending on the timing of the ball drain switch
Scenario:
- Ball 1 is thrown
- Ball 2 is immediately thrown after
- Ball 1 sinks in 50 and is scored fifty becuase waitingforball = false, and heads down the chute, sets waitingforball = true
- Ball 2 hits the 100 is not scored, because waitingforball = true and starts rolling down the chute
- Ball 1 hits the ball drain, sets waitingforball =false
- ball 2 continues down the chute and is down by the 30 switch, hits 30. waitingforball=false, so score 30. set waitingforball=true
- Ball 2 finally hits the ball drain sets waitingforball = false
You just got screwed out of scoring the 100 pocket.
Even in the worst optical case is 100x better than the physical switch case.
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So I'm definitely implementing optical and migrating my machine over to optical switches.. for sure.
So for optical options I have to implement 2 modes:
- Optical with Ball Drain
- Optical with Gutter detection
I'm worried about the 2nd optical option and the potential for recording multiple gutters due to a bounce, so I might just live with the ball drain option and tell people to not expect great results if you play these games like an ---uvula--- and throw 3 balls rapidfire in a game where that matters.... it won't in most games to be honest.
make sense? Comments? Insight?
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Optical Switch spanning the scoring box on the bottom for "gutters".
This woudl be ideal, because we can disregard a ball once it's recorded, and we'll know when a ball misses the scoring holes entirely. I'm worried this might be susceptible to "bounce" if the ball bounces or something causing it to record multiple gutters.
Not sure exactly where you're talking about mounting the gutter IR LED/sensor. :dunno
Maybe pictures or a diagram would clarify the path that a gutterball follows and reveal options for where to position them.
For example, the scoring ring LEDs and sensors mount on the back of the playfield like thatpurplestuff did with the mechanical switches in this pic -- LED on the left (or right) side of the hole, sensor on the other side.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=90051.0;attach=137599;image)
The 3d printed mounts (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2932740) fit inside protective 1/2" x 1/2" C-channel aluminum. ;D
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=156300.0;attach=368095;image)
When the ball passes through the scoring hole, it breaks the beam.
With the right impact-absorbing padding and/or deflection wedges, you can greatly reduce the odds of accidently scoring on the bounce-back.
Hopefully you can create a smilar fall-through-the-hole-break-the-beam-and-absorb-or-redirect-the-bounce-back path for gutterballs. :lol
If you can't avoid bounce-back, maybe you can add some debounce code so there's a limit on how often gutterballs can register.
Scott
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Pl1:
(https://i.imgur.com/eogXxiD.png)
I'm taking about a break beam across the width of the cabinet at #1, or in the drain at #2.
If you have it at #2, EVERY ball will cross that sensor, even after it's hit a scoring sensor. So you have to have a count of all balls that scored, and decrement when they pass #2. If the count is 0, then we count it as a gutterball because it hit #2 without hitting a scoring hole. However, we don't know the exact ORDER as per my scenarios above.
If we can find a way to direct a beam across #1, then we no longer have to worry about keeping a count, becuase each ball can really only hit each sensor once. My concern was with a bounce in the gutter area at #1.
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Need Help Testing Optical Support
If anyone is willing to help me test optical support, even just with their keyboard simulating the pocket hits, please let me know.
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I can help test.
I bought these whisker switches to mount for each hole.
Electrical Buddy Cat Whisker... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L8JR3W7?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
They seem very durable, low profile, and will mount easily. (About $5 each). Personally I have little kids so I am not worried about counting gutter balls, I’m fine with getting to roll it again.
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Found some pics in Entropy42's thread here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116309.msg1232320.html#msg1232320) that might help clarify the path that gutterballs travel from the face of the playfield to the ball drain (rectangular cutout on left of the near face), assuming that your cab is similarly constructed.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=116309.0;attach=176425;image)
Looks like gutterballs would fall off the face of the playfield onto a flat, open, sloped surface that guides all balls to the drain.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=116309.0;attach=176429;image)
Unclet posted a downward-looking pic here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,29727.msg252124.html#msg252124) in Ixliam's thread.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=29727.0;attach=8636;image)
Based on that info, maybe you could install a "gutterball playfield" in the gap between the playfield and ramp.
- Make it parallel to and above the "flat, open, sloped surface" so there's room for the scoring balls to pass under it on their way to the ball drain.
- Gutterballs would roll down the slope of the gutterball playfield to a hole near the ball drain.
- Mount the LED and sensor on the underside of the gutterball playfield.
- The gutterball falls through that hole and into the ball drain path.
Scott
EDIT: This diagram might make it easier to visualize. ;D
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Thank you for drawing it in crayon (seriously). I was obsessed with trying to do a breakbeam across the whole damn cabinet, when this is a MUCH better solution.
We're essentially creating a "0" pocket, which is EXACTLY what I wanted to do.
So now that I'm using an atomic pi and don't have a PC power supply to tap off of, any suggestions about a compact economical way to power the break beam sensors?
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So I just went out to my garage and looked, and the biggest problem is going to clearance.
When the balls come down the chute and hit the black plastic chute on the bottom , they stick up above the surface at the start of the curve, so I can't put something flat across it. I might be able to mount something raised just enough, but that's taking away height on the "wall" in the front on the lane side that keeps gutter balls from jumping up and back onto the lane.
I'll have to play with it a bit to see what might work. whatever I do, it'll probably have to be metal, as wood thin enough to actually work here would probably break/crack from the impacts.
(https://i.imgur.com/9bHkBmr.png)
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The more I look, the more I'm convinced it's going to be difficult.. if not impossible to pull this off-- and maybe even worse than the alternative timing wise.
See below
(https://i.imgur.com/YUEPiIe.png)
There's no clearance to put the sensors front and back, it woudl have to be on either side. There's just little/no clearance here if I want to have enough of a slant on the metal ramp to acutally make the ball go down there in any reasonable amout of time. IF the slant is so slight that it takes forever to drain, then it's not any better (and actually might be worse timing wise) than putting the sensors in the rail and tracking them as in my scenarios above, becuase a ball will hit the gutter, but not actually go through the hole that detects the gutter hit in any reasonable amount of time.
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So now that I'm using an atomic pi and don't have a PC power supply to tap off of, any suggestions about a compact economical way to power the break beam sensors?
If you were using a RasPi, I'd say a 4A 2-plug phone charger similar to this one (https://www.amazon.com/Listed-Rapid-Charger-Samsung-Galaxy-Motorola-Charge/dp/B003FO8NMU).
- One plug to power the RasPi, the other to power the IR LEDs (and maybe the sensors) with 5v.
- Each IR LED will draw about 15mA @ 5v, 120 mA total. Too much current draw for GPIO.
- Each sensor draws less than 0.25mA @ 5v whether or not the beam is broken. :o Current draw is low enough to use GPIO 3.3v and GPIO inputs if desired.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71bvd%2BJYFoL._SL1500_.jpg)
If you don't want to cut off the micro USB connector, there are adapter boards like this one (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZ1JC5D).
- Not sure if the traces on this board would handle the current draw to power the atomic pi -- you might need a "baby breakout" or "large breakout" board instead. :dunno
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ouCno05lL._SL1024_.jpg)
Inputs via GPIO:
Assuming that the GPIO pins are similar to the RasPi, inputs are limited to 3.3v.
- Use 3.3v and ground from GPIO to power the 3-wire sensors via the red and black wires.
- White wire goes to the GPIO input pin.
Inputs via USB encoder: (IPac, Arduino, etc.)
- Use the same 5v and ground that you used for the IR LEDs.
Scott
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Scott,
I'm going to be using the iPac-2 I'm currently using for the physical switches for input.
I've got a baby breakout board :
(https://i.imgur.com/HzvxDFY.png)
I think you were questioning if it could handle the current draw. I believe the API requires 2.4, my power supply is 3A, and you said we're looking at 120mA -- in theory I should be able to tap 5v from there.
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I believe the API requires 2.4, my power supply is 3A, and you said we're looking at 120mA -- in theory I should be able to tap 5v from there.
Sounds good. :cheers:
(https://i.imgur.com/YUEPiIe.png)
How hard would it be to remove the plastic chute and build different paths for scoring balls and gutterballs?
Maybe some walls (black) to guide the scoring balls to the right and straight out the ball drain.
Then add a steep gutterball ramp (blue) with recessed wall-mounted sensors, a cover (yellow) that guides right-edge gutterballs onto the ramp, and angled wall blocks at the bottom of the ramp that reduce the chance of scoring balls accidently reaching the gutterball sensor.
Scott
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It's doable, but i'm looking for a repeatable process for Model H and model S that doesn't require large amounts of construction (if possible).
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Need Help Testing Optical Support
If anyone is willing to help me test optical support, even just with their keyboard simulating the pocket hits, please let me know.
I can definitely help.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
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How about adding a gutterball playfield with enough clearance on the underside and a backstop-wedge across the top-back of the ramp and rails?
The backstop-wedge would have to be short enough to not block a 10-ring shot and the playfield side would have to be tall enough to stop gutterballs from coming back down the lane.
You could also make the gutterball playfield slightly V-shaped with the hole near the middle to almost double the angle, compared to a flat playfield.
Scott
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I can say that once I tell people to not throw your next ball until it hits a hole I have not had any problems with not scoring. It does not take long at all for the ball to get to the ball count (gutter ball sensor). I will try to pull the machine apart and get pics of my full set up using the optical sensors, I-pac, power supply, Arduino for lighting. I am also just using a Zbox mini (40 bucks used) with Windows 10 running the software. I also have everything hooked up to a smart power switch. Computer plugged in to master so when you turn it on it will turn everything else on. Joystick with start and exit button just below where you grab a ball from the return lane.
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I’m definitely curious about the lighting. I was toying with adding LED support for game mechanics/enhancements but am now sure how to programmatically interface with them.
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Public Alpha Release with Optical Support
For whoever wants to test, here's an Alpha release with optical support:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d4nn0ceotqgchye/MLS-OpticalSupport.zip?dl=0
Want to help out?
.NET Developer?
I'd love help from .NET developers if you want to help improve the software. PM me
Got game ideas?
Let me know!! I'm looking for ideas for new games to add. Let me know if you have any ideas!
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The following are new entries in the config.json you should be aware of.
Game Mode
Configures the software for various physical setups
Supported Values:
- PhysicalSwitches - Stock model S or model H setup where the ball hits multiple switches on the way down the center chute.
- OpticalWithBallDrain - Setups with optical switches (or physical rockers) where the ball only hits one pocket switch, but hits a common "ball drain" switch in the rail
- OpticalWithGutterDetect - Setups with optical switches (or physical rockers) where the ball only hits one pocket switch, and there is a single optical or physical switch to detect a "gutter drain"... no common rail switch is hit by all balls.
Some notes on the game modes.
Physical Switches
Once a ball hits a pocket, no other scores will be recorded until the ball drain switch (the one in the rail) is hit.
OpticalWithBallDrain
Each time a scoring pocket is hit, a counter in incremented. Once a ball goes through the ball drain, that counter is decremented. A "gutterball" will be recorded when a ball goes through the ball drain and the counter is 0.
OpticalWithGutterDetect
Pockets and gutters scored instantly.
fullscreen & borderless
For the windows version:
fullscreen=true - This is the true fullscreen mode . Borderless switch has no effect.
fullscreen=false, borderless=true - This is borderless fullscreen mode.. Use this if you're having issues with sound in fullscreen mode. set resolution to OS resolution.
fullscreen=false, borderless=false - windowed mode.
For the DesktopGL version on *nix, OSX (not yet released)
fullscreen=true, borderless=true, turns off hardware mode, effectively setting up borderless fullscreen.
Other Notes
BY default, they keymap is:
A=10
S=20
D=30
F=40
G=50
H=Left 100
J=Right 100
N=ball drain
up=up
down=down
left=left
right=right
info(blue button)=I
select(green button) = Enter
back (yellow button)=ESC
Debug - set Debug = true in the config.json to see the values of all the game variables. Set to false to disable variable display. This will be helpful to see the value of the counter in optical mode. -- you'll be looking at the value of 'OpticalScoreCount'
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Lookin' good!
Using it without changing any configuration settings I noticed the following:
Doesn’t open full screen.
Skeeball Bonus, WackaMole and Riskee- close the application while loading
If you don’t use “N” consistently, it may take a few times for it to register a gutter-ball
I am going to try to get it to work on a Pi3+ and will report back. (Windows OS).
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Gumoyme:
I’ll look at the crashing this morning..
The ‘N’ is by design. The game mode is ‘OpitcalWithBallDrain’ by default. Hitting a pocket scores the pocket and increments a counter. Hitting ‘N’ (Ball Drain) acts as the ball rolling down the chute and clearing the drain. A gutter all can only be scored when that counter is 0.
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Lookin' good!
Using it without changing any configuration settings I noticed the following:
Doesn’t open full screen.
Skeeball Bonus, WackaMole and Riskee- close the application while loading
If you don’t use “N” consistently, it may take a few times for it to register a gutter-ball
I am going to try to get it to work on a Pi3+ and will report back. (Windows OS).
The link has been updated with an updated version that fixes the issues you identified. Redownload from the link above.
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Amazing. I just played 10 games of original skeeball throwing the balls as fast as I can and all balls registered without flaw. Had to set debug to false as it showed the config on screen over the game's screens. I have people coming over Saturday so will give it a really good test. Gutter and all holes score as they should. Start holidays next week so will get some pics of inside my machine and links to LEDs and power supply I used off Amazon. Note to anyone transforming skeeball machine that has sensors all ready, they can be used rather than buying the ones from Adifruit. I hooked all mine back up with same power supply I was using for the adifruit ones. Very easy now to transform your skeeball machine using this great software. Thanks again nipsmg :cheers:
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Riskee had a couple issues, crashed on last ball trying to hit the 100 after hitting the 40 countdown began to hit 100 then explosion sounded twice and the program stopped. (have not been able to duplicate again) Also, you cant hit the 40 too quickly in a row. If you do the 40 will no longer register on any of the remaining balls and game will freeze after your last ball. Have to exit and restart.
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Interesting. Something is messed up there with game state or something. I’ll look into it. Riskee is the most technically complicated game —. I probably hosed something when converting it for optical sensors. I will look into it this weekend for sure.
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Also, Skricket is counting score and a drain on the first ball thrown, thereby. scoring only 2 balls. Slowing gameplay down in Riskee solved the issues with the 40 not being registered. But it does crash every time if your last ball hits a 40 countdown begins, throw another ball it will crash. Don't throw another ball and the game will end normally.
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Which game mode do you have it in? (check your settings.json).
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Which game mode do you have it in? (check your settings.json).
OpticalWithBallDrain
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Ok thanks. God knows with those two games specifically I was scratching my head a bit. I’ll get it fixed this week.
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I've fixed skricket but riskee is pretty hosed with the optical changes. It's been a while since I wrote it, so I'm trying to re-map out how all of the asynchronous stuff runs in what order, and why if I hit 40 when spinner is running it won't spin again and the game will not end. Very odd. Will hopefully get it fixed today and back out for testing. Stay tuned...
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So I'm interested in feedback.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN if you hit a 40 pocket while the spinner is going? Should it just score 40 and place a random bomb? That's what i'm thinking here...
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Link updated with newest build.
Should fix the issues posted by stangx.
In riskee if you throw a ball while the spinner is running, you score the holes value. That's it.
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So I'm interested in feedback.
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN if you hit a 40 pocket while the spinner is going? Should it just score 40 and place a random bomb? That's what I'm thinking here...
Yes that is a great idea. kind of a penalty for throwing before it's done picking a box. So I just played skricket and it works as it should. But Riskee will still crash if your last ball hits a 40 and it picks a bomb. If you get extra balls or a score it will reward you with what it landed on. But if you hit a 40 with the last ball and it lands on a bomb the countdown will begin, If you throw anther ball including hitting the 100 the game will crash. Maybe adding 1 ball to the game if you hit the 40 on your last ball and land on a bomb. As it sits now you really don't have another ball to throw during the countdown as it shows 0. So if you don't throw during countdown game ends normally and you can start up next game.
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Thanks..Needed that scenario. Will look into it.
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I set it to open in full screen mode and it opens briefly then minimizes so it's only on the task bar. When I set fullscreen back to false, it works just fine.
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Bowling, Skeeball, Riskee, Whack-a-mole - info button doesn’t cycle the instruction menu off screen. Goes from Instruction to High Score then back to Instruction, I think the third time should go back to the game play, that would be a similar user experience to the games without a high score. They go from Instruction pop-up then back to game play.
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I set it to open in full screen mode and it opens briefly then minimizes so it's only on the task bar. When I set fullscreen back to false, it works just fine.
Is borderless set to true or false? Try switching that toggle and let me know what happens. I have not been having issues with fullscreen mode.
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Bowling, Skeeball, Riskee, Whack-a-mole - info button doesn’t cycle the instruction menu off screen. Goes from Instruction to High Score then back to Instruction, I think the third time should go back to the game play, that would be a similar user experience to the games without a high score. They go from Instruction pop-up then back to game play.
I *think* this is by design, (hit "back/esc" to close the popup), but I will review. Thanks for the reports!
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Here are some pics of my setup. You can see the bracket inside the hole that houses the optical sensor. (every hole the same) Close up Sensor bracket pic is pointed down inside ball return lane for the gutter ball count. Arduino for lighting, ( still want to do more with the lighting) Pic of power supply I am using to power optical sensors hooked up to Ipac II. Joystick, Start(enter), exit button on side and volume control Pic. Also LED black light to make the playfield pop. Also gave the balls a coat of fluorescent paint and clear coat to give it a lava effect under black light. Also a pic of a smart controller. Hook computer to master and everything else will power on and off with the computer. I also added skeeball exe to windows startup so it will auto boot into the skeeball games menu when you power it up.
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I downloaded the most recent version and when I set fullscreen to true, with or without borderless set to true, it minimizes itself. FullScreen set to false works fine. I am on Windows 10.
I installed Windows IOT on a Pie B (B+ isn't supported fyi), but it wasn't a simple process to install the app (need visual studio etc). I gave up and bought a Mini PC stick with Windows pre-installed I am going to try.
Great suggestion for master switch!
If you want to set it to open when the computer is booted:
To add an app to Startup:
1. With the app file location open, press the Windows logo key + R, type shell:startup, then select OK. This opens the Startupfolder.
2. Create a shortcut to the app. Copy and paste the app shortcut to the Startup folder.
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Grumpyme2: I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why this would be happening, as I have not seen this behavior on 10-15 machines that I have tested this on. This may be a driver specific or machine specific thing, unsure. I can have you try the DesktopGL version and see if that version works for you, but I've had a lot of toruble with that version playing sound while in fullscreen mode. I'll put a link here sometime today so you can try that version.
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Grumpyme: Below is a link to the DesktopGL build of the optical build of Major League Skeeball. This is the build that is cross-platform and should run on monogame on linux as compiled.
Note: I generally recommend that people do not run this build on windows-- the Windows build uses DirectX and is generally more compatible.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ryh8buo4b6t5nkq/MLS-OPTICAL-DesktopGL.zip?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ryh8buo4b6t5nkq/MLS-OPTICAL-DesktopGL.zip?dl=0)
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I got it all working on a PC stick running Windows 10. Didn’t have the issue with it minimizing in Full screen mode. Full screen mode didn’t have sound so I turned that off and boarders off and adjusted the size and it works great! Only strange thing is if I have it running and turn off the PC, when it boots back up, no sound! Also Cliff Hanger doesn’t work. If I exit and launch the app again, it works normally. Hoping to get all the holes wired up tomorrow.
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Cliffhanger doesn’t work... at all?!
Or in some specific circumstance?
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I Should have been more specific. After powering off (with app open)and back on, sound and CliffHanger doesn’t work. If I close the app and re-open, it works normally.
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great looking program!
I was starting to write my own program in Python for a RPi3/4 and saw this thread so maybe not...
Do you have to use the skeeball controller with a pc? or can you use a Raspberry Pi and its GPIO?
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I’m definitely curious about the lighting. I was toying with adding LED support for game mechanics/enhancements but am now sure how to programmatically interface with them.
It would depend if you wanted Dumb RGB or controllable Pixels.
You could interface with an Arduino and use one of Pixel libraries out there like fastled.io like this tutorial HERE (https://randomnerdtutorials.com/guide-for-ws2812b-addressable-rgb-led-strip-with-arduino/)
or use Adafruit's Neopixel Library Neopixel in git hub (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_NeoPixel)
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I want to thank everyone on this thread. This is awesome! I still need to wire up my controls and ball drain, but everything is working great, the holes are working (I used Whisker switches). I am using a PC stick running Windows 10.
1 suggestion is to make Skricket a bit easier to tell who’s turn it is. Zap is a hoot with 4 players!
Now I need to figure out how to sell my Model S internals.
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I see you have this in the .config, what key does it map to? "Pause: 80", what do you need it for?
Also, I assume these are timeout durations, are they minutes? If I wanted to not have the application not close for 24 hours, would I set the Menu screen to 1440? What would be the affect of changing them all to 1440?
"InactivityTimeouts": {
"MenuScreen": 60,
"GameScreen": 1024,
"AttractModeScreen": 25,
"TitleScreen": 15,
"ExitConfirm": 15
Thanks!
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I noticed in the high score config there is CliffHanger (Stranger in the Alps), Zap and X10. At the end of these games, there isn't a prompt to enter initials.
Also, when scrolling through the menu, until you scroll through it multiple times, the next icon doesn't match the next game that comes up, and it seems to skip some for a while (X10, whack a mole, for example).
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Some ideas:
For Zap, the high score could be a count of wins by 3 letter initial. If you win, you enter your initials, then that increments a counter for those initials.
For X10, could be least number of throws.
I would like to see the high score list be displayed at the end of every game, even if you didn’t make the list. That way, everyone gets to see #1 score in classic Skeeball of 1000000 by “Dad Rules” (typed it into configuration file, lol!)
Since I no longer have or need a ball release, I’d love to see another button option that plays the classic Skeeball sound then the sound of balls being being released. I want to wire it up to the quarter button. (Searched for sound but couldn’t find it).
Sorry for string messages, loving this.
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I see you have this in the .config, what key does it map to? "Pause: 80", what do you need it for?
Also, I assume these are timeout durations, are they minutes? If I wanted to not have the application not close for 24 hours, would I set the Menu screen to 1440? What would be the affect of changing them all to 1440?
"InactivityTimeouts": {
"MenuScreen": 60,
"GameScreen": 1024,
"AttractModeScreen": 25,
"TitleScreen": 15,
"ExitConfirm": 15
Thanks!
so.. Pause is intersting.. Apparently I was toying with adding pause functionality.. Hitting Pause will set the backend gamestatus to "Paused", and only one game (Skricket) even knows about it. I wouldn't wire up a button for that, it cooul have unintended consequences.
The timeouts denote how many seconds each screen will be shown before something happens:
- Menu screen -- it'll wait for 60 seconds of inactivity before dumping to the title screen
- Game Screen -- If you're in a game and haven't started it, it'll stay in that game fore 1024 seconds of inactivity before dumping you back to the menu screen.
- Attract Mode Screen -- The amount of time it'll sit on a single game when in attract mode and cycling through them
- Title screen -- It'll wait 15 seconds at the title screen before kicking into attract mode.
-- ExitConfirm. When you hit "back" to fully exit the game, it'll give you a confirmation screen where you have to click "select" or "green button" to actually exit. If you sit there for 15 seconds, it'll dump you back to the title screen.
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Some ideas:
For Zap, the high score could be a count of wins by 3 letter initial. If you win, you enter your initials, then that increments a counter for those initials.
For X10, could be least number of throws.
I would like to see the high score list be displayed at the end of every game, even if you didn’t make the list. That way, everyone gets to see #1 score in classic Skeeball of 1000000 by “Dad Rules” (typed it into configuration file, lol!)
Since I no longer have or need a ball release, I’d love to see another button option that plays the classic Skeeball sound then the sound of balls being being released. I want to wire it up to the quarter button. (Searched for sound but couldn’t find it).
Sorry for string messages, loving this.
1 suggestion is to make Skricket a bit easier to tell who’s turn it is.
When it ocmes to high scores, 310, zap, skricket, and cliffhanger don't have high scores. The reason? There's no high score in these games. They all are played in such a way that you are trying to reach a goal. I suppose I could record game length, or record time to goal or something, but there's no real good "high score" to record. It was suggested for Cliffhanger that I record #of balls and time and weight that somehow into a calculated score. I'll look into that.
For skricket -- yeah I changed the colors of the "throws left" indicator to the color of the player, but I fully agree with this suggestion. I am FAR FROM a graphic designer and created all of these screens in Photoshop with some minimal skills. If anyone knows anyone who does UI/Graphic design who wouldn't mind making some suggestions I am totally open to any of them!!
I definitely think showing high scores at the end of each game where there are high scores is an interesting idea. I will definitely look into it.
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Just throwing it out there..... An optional credit button would be awesome. Giving all game arcade mode or Freeplay choice in the config file. Would love the ability to use my coin slot for credits or just push of a button for those without a coin door.
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Game Idea
“$krilla”
First to 1,000 points wins
A gutter moves your score to zero.
Points accumulate for your turn until you hit enter, then they are “banked” and it’s the next players turn. If you score a 10, you get zero points for that round and it’s the next players turn.
4 player.
You bet $5 a round. If you finish at zero points, you pay an additional $5 to the winner. Maybe keep a running total of how much people owe and have won?
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You can only win after you score over 1000. Score exactly and you go to zero. Everyone gets another round to try and equal or better your score. If they do, then everyone gets a chance to beat them. This can really extend the game play and be fun. (This is a dice game I got the idea from).
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This is kinda like Zap, except you drive yourself to 0 and not your teammate. Interesting.
BTW.. in case you didn’t know,both 310 and 320 ZAP can be played as 3XX/5XX/7XX/9XX by hitting left/right after launching the game before starting it.
920 zap gets really fun when someone has like 750 and you zap their ass to 0 :)
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I've got Skee Ball Too with a bad display and in my hunt for one of those someone asked if had heard of this project and pointed me here. I had not, and here I am.
Tbh, I would have been happy to find this even if I had a fully working machine because this looks a LOT better. Pretty sure I can figure out how to make this happen. As I get started planning, a question...any reason why an old J-Pac that doesn't have USB built in wouldn't work fine with a USB to PS2 adapter? I know bothering to make this JAMMA is kind of stupid, but I have J-Pac's sitting around unused along with JAMMA harnesses, so assuming there's no compatibility issues that would be cheaper. But I'm not above buying an IPac2 if that makes a lot more sense, too.
--Donnie
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I'd ask Andy from ultimarc-- just email him.. he's pretty responsive. The old iPac 2's had PS2 connectors but supported USB. I don't believe those PS/2 -> USB adapters universally worked unless the board/keyboard they were being used on supported them, but I don't have enough knowledge of it.
You are going to need the following inputs:
Pockets
- Left 100
- Right 100
- 50
- 40
- 30
- 20
- 10
- Ball Drain
Controls
- Up/ Game Mode +
- Down / Game Mode -
- Left / Player Count -
- Right / Player Count +
- Start/Select
- Back/Exit
- Info
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Thanks for the info above.
Turns out I am dumb. All J-Pacs *have* USB. I saw two mini-DIN connectors and wrongly just assumed one was keyboard and one was mouse (on the assumption that they'd use "mouse" support for spinners and trackballs). Turns out one is PS-2 keyboard and the other is....USB. And they sell a mini-DIN to USB cable separately that I didn't know about because back when I was doing these everything had keyboard ports so you just used a straight mini-DIN cable.
So I've ordered the proper USB cable from Ultimarc for $6. And you were right, Andy was pretty fast at returning email about my question. The J-Pac itself is actually labeled, too, that one port is USB and the other PS-2, I just didn't even look that close. I looked for a USB-looking port and seeing none assumed it was pre-USB.
--Donnie
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Status and Musings
Since the optical update I've been kind of frozen. My main focus has been attempting to get this to run on an SBC. The biggest issue I had with MonoGame is that there is only video support on Windows, so I had to do some crazy crap to get the animations in bowling to work:
- convert to low frame rate
- create one big image with each frame in a part of a grid
- then lock the timing of the images to playback in-step with the audio
See here:
(https://i.imgur.com/KQsbpHBm.png)
Also, monogame does not want to play nice with OpenGLES on the Rpi 3b+. I've really only been successful with this running on Windows. I REALLY, REALLY want to get this running on a cheap SBC running on Linux so I can make conversion kits as cheap as possible.
As such, I'm thinking of migrating this code from MonoGame to FNA. This conversion should be RELATIVELY straight forward, as they are both implementations of XNA, and I'm not doing anything really crazy in MonoGame that wouldn't convert over. This will likely take me a little time given my current workload.
The nice things about this is that if I can convert to FNA, I should get the following:
- Support for cheap single board computers (RPi, ODroid Xu4)
- Support for Video!!!!!
- True, compile once run anywhere code for Linux, MacOSX, and Windows
Once I get this done, I'll need some more help testing. If it looks good, my next step will be LED controller support.
Stay tuned!
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HUGE Idea.
Another quick "revelation" today around controls.
I've been obsessing for so long over the best way to create a control panel with pushbuttons and LEDs and stuff that I overlooked a really, really easy way to add controls to this:
An iPad mini or a cheap Android tablet on a mount. It would be pretty easy to create a really nice, interactive interface in app form that could be used to wirelessly control the interface of the game and provide feedback, etc.
Instead of attempting to jam buttons into the rail, or come up with some crude control scheme, you get something like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/6d3tjTA.png)
I hvae no idea why I didnt' think of this earlier, but it makes it WAY, WAY, WAY easier to implement and to swap out on a machine.
You can get some CRAZY cheap android tablets that don't do too much.. BUT THAT'S THE POINT:
https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9siv07r2mt8398 (https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9siv07r2mt8398)
https://www.amazon.com/RCA-RCT6873W42-Resolution-Quad-Core-Marshmallow/dp/B01MRST6L4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=android+tablet&qid=1570035084&s=gateway&sr=8-4 (https://www.amazon.com/RCA-RCT6873W42-Resolution-Quad-Core-Marshmallow/dp/B01MRST6L4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=android+tablet&qid=1570035084&s=gateway&sr=8-4)
Thoughts?
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I like it, but if you do that then you restrict your device to home use only. Which may be fine, but if you don't HAVE to, then why? But then again, maybe the likelihood of anyone wanting to operate a converted one is so low as to be a non-issue. Just a thought.
I also don't *love* the idea of a mount like that since it creates a pretty large amount of required extra space beside the entire machine (ie. you can't put it up against a wall). But I can't think of a better way, either. Hmm.
--Donnie
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there is no way to operate this in any way other than home use, and I have no plans to support it, unless I got some kind of financial backing to make it worthwhile. it's meant for home use only. Also, there's doesn't have to be a pole, I was actually thinking originally of a flat steel bar to use as the riser - not sure yet.
The other option is to make a mount that is a steel U channel that would fit over the rail and/or clamp to it and the pole would rise up from that.
Just some ideas.
Also, the idea would be for the mount to be able to go on either side, so putting it up against a wall shouldn't be a huge deal, unless you're shoving this machine into a 13x4 cutout made specifically for a skeeball machine.
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Here's another idea since you are going into the tablet area of things... why not just have it controlled via a voice assistant? There are skills that let me control my xbox in alexa and google and they both work petty well for basic control. I haven't looked and their SDKs though so I don't have a clue how difficult that would be.
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I mean I guess you could, but i could see that being pretty unintuitive for anyone other than the owner, unless you knew all of the commands.
I'm just trying to figure out a good way make a control panel that doesn't look like crap, as my controls are still in the top of an old plastic bucket:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=368179)
And finding buttons and leds and everything else that will look good and building a control panel you don't have to get back strain using from bending over seems to be an issue, so why not use any widely available touchscreen that runs an intuitive, responsive, beautiful interface that can "light up" and give feedback, without having to make it mechanical?
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Yeah, the "not bending over" part of this seems like a huge win. I could do a pretty cool control panel with the laser cutter that could integrate into the side rail, but like you said, it would be low enough to be very annoying.
I always like the *idea* of voice control, but in reality I've never actually liked doing it.
Tablet idea is growing on me. I generally prefer iOS, but I think you want a dedicated tablet for this and the cost of the Android seems to make that a no-brainer.
--Donnie
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Yeah, I could write the app in Xamarin so I could use 99% of the same code and release it on Android and iOS at the same time.
I actually think that I'm going to try this BEFORE doing the LED support. I think I'm set on converting this to FNA -- I want video support, so I think that's my roadmap:
- Convert from MonoGame to FNA
- Test and validate on various cheap single board computers
- Write tablet/phone app and write support for network control of Skeeball app
- LED Controller Support
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I love this idea. I have iPad and android devices I bearly ever use. Joystick gets in the way sometimes. Looking forward to this release. Side note Riskee still has the last ball crash issue when you hit the 40. Will only reward you with extra balls if landed on or a score. If landing on bomb it will crash when you throw the ball including hitting the 100. Like how this has evolved. Keep up the great work
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stangx:
Yeah, I found the issue where this occurs. I need to whiteboard the game states out so I can fix it. I think it just begs the question.. what should happen if the LAST ball is a 40. I need to separate out events in the "countdown" state from events in the rest of the game.
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Yeah, I could write the app in Xamarin so I could use 99% of the same code and release it on Android and iOS at the same time.
I actually think that I'm going to try this BEFORE doing the LED support. I think I'm set on converting this to FNA -- I want video support, so I think that's my roadmap:
- Convert from MonoGame to FNA
- Test and validate on various cheap single board computers
- Write tablet/phone app and write support for network control of Skeeball app
- LED Controller Support
Why not write in Python. Run on a RPi 3 or 4. In Raspbian you could use the web server to host pages powered by the Python. This way you just need some simple python files to create the displayed pages to control the games. Store the settings, high scores etc in xml files? The Rpi should have enough I/O for all of the switches. This is the approach I was looking taking with my own similar project. The Rpi is cheap enough, it can control relays easily for lights, solenoid etc.
What are you creating your graphics in?
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Mostly because my background is in .NET, and I already knew the Microsoft.XNA framework from other projects I've done. Given my limited free time, it made the most sense to write in something I knew and was familiar with so I could actually get something working in a reasonable amount of time.
It appears that the FNA framework more easily works on a rPI 3b+ than MonoGame for some reason, so I'm going to try that out. (they are re-implementations of Microsoft.Xna).
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This is great, I’ve been away from this forum for a bit. I have created a bunch of skeeball games in Flash for mine. The software is public, feel free to borrow ideas from it. Mine also integrates custom lighting as well for all the holes.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnDLo-WVE7jAjlm89vejhHSJFDNn?e=mhv9lm
I have games such as:
Skee Wars - higher scoring skeeball Star Wars themed with a special ball at the end worth more. Supports up 4 players.
Time Bomb - beta where you have to hit holes in specific combinations to defuse a bomb
The Chase - Simpson’s themed endless runner. Score points at a fast pace to run. Stay ahead of Homer!
And more
Enjoy! Good luck on your project :)
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there is no way to operate this in any way other than home use, and I have no plans to support it, unless I got some kind of financial backing to make it worthwhile. it's meant for home use only. Also, there's doesn't have to be a pole, I was actually thinking originally of a flat steel bar to use as the riser - not sure yet.
The other option is to make a mount that is a steel U channel that would fit over the rail and/or clamp to it and the pole would rise up from that.
Just some ideas.
Also, the idea would be for the mount to be able to go on either side, so putting it up against a wall shouldn't be a huge deal, unless you're shoving this machine into a 13x4 cutout made specifically for a skeeball machine.
I picked up a mount on amazon for cheap. It swivels and moves to whatever position you choose or side of lane you like best. I will test it all out when you get time to put the software together. The kids and their friends love to play skeeball and I believe the implementation of a tablet will make it more user-friendly. Everyone has used a tablet and it's out of the way of throwing or grabbing a ball. Not to mention an updated look to an old machine. Heres a pic. Not mounted yet, as I am still looking for the best place to mount permanently. :cheers:
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Stangx:
Do you have a URL for that mount?
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search Pyle-Home PSPAD05 on Amazon. I got mine as an amazon warehouse deal for 8 dollars. Also, were you just thinking about using an app like joytokey for controls or another similar program? Or are you going to try and create your own for the game?
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I just did this for my controls. The buttons light up when the power is on.
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I just did this for my controls.
Are you planning on covering that mounting plate?
If you like, there's parametric OpenSCAD code here (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,160595.msg1691564.html#msg1691564) for a 3d-printable mounting plate cover.
The default values should work for that joystick plate. (40x84mm mount pattern)
Scott
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Cool thanks. I don’t have plans cover it now, kids like looking down in there for some reason. : )
Here is the parts list I used thanks to this thread. We love playing it!
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1AVGSWTSIEGBQ?ref_=wl_share
(Always happy to help test too)
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Here is the parts list I used thanks to this thread. We love playing it!
Hey Gumpyme2! Just curious what your opinions are on that PC Stick now that you've had a little time with it. You still think its a good way to go?
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Yes the arcade stick works great. Sometimes you hit it when playing, but it doesn’t interrupt game play. Used JoyToKey to code the inputs (very easy). I had it and the buttons left over from a 1Up build.
My only struggle was having JoyToKey come up when the CPU comes on.
Fixed that with this tip:
https://joytokey.net/en/posts/how-to-auto-startup/
I know how I want to do my gutter ball (physical switch), that’s all I have left!
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:afro:
Man this is one of the neatest things I saw.
Sorry if I missed it, but are people with classic Model H carnival models (no 100s) out of luck? It would be amazing to have a setup for different models.
Thanks for all the work on this!!!
Jherre6
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I just found your software and post Monday and i have already ordered everything to build one. I have 3 skeeballs in the basement now and it is the most played game we have. I am curious if you have seen the software in a beerball. It has a 3 ball rotation that allows each person to throw three balls and then it is the next players turn. It scores just like traditional skee ball but makes it a lot of fun because you can catch up on the other people if you had a bad round. Also this is a 4 player game on beerball but quite often we have more that 4 that want to play. If you could make it an 8 player game that would be awesome. I would even be willing to donate some money toward the programming time. I am going to build your software into a 13 foot lane from the 90's. i will post some pictures as i make progress. One of my current machines is the guts from a beerball that i put into a 13 foot lane. came out awesome.
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where do i find the link to download the most current version of the software. i am new to the arcade forum and don't know where to look.
thanks
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to post 187. If you don't have 100 holes you could easily cut them in and order 100 circles. Baytek has new ones in black for beerball at 60.00 each. You are putting in new switches and software so easily could add two more to your board.
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But the problem is the ball ramps. The non 100s do not have side ramps for the balls.
Thanks for the reply!
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I just found your software and post Monday and i have already ordered everything to build one. I have 3 skeeballs in the basement now and it is the most played game we have. I am curious if you have seen the software in a beerball. It has a 3 ball rotation that allows each person to throw three balls and then it is the next players turn. It scores just like traditional skee ball but makes it a lot of fun because you can catch up on the other people if you had a bad round. Also this is a 4 player game on beerball but quite often we have more that 4 that want to play. If you could make it an 8 player game that would be awesome. I would even be willing to donate some money toward the programming time. I am going to build your software into a 13 foot lane from the 90's. i will post some pictures as i make progress. One of my current machines is the guts from a beerball that i put into a 13 foot lane. came out awesome.
I can probably implement that. There are some 4 player versions of standard skeeball that work in this way, I believe there's a video on this thread someone posted about it. Send me a private message and lets talk about the gameplay - Also, donations are ALWAYS appreciated :)
----------------------
Let me know if I can help with your build or configuration.
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Also, donations are ALWAYS appreciated :)
Sorry if I missed it, but have you posted a PayPal address? I will absolutely contribute.
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I just purchased a project from OmahaPaul. Good dude!! I’m tearing down a 13 ft skeeball to redo and add this software to it. Nipsmg, if you have a PayPal or other type of account I will surely contribute. Would be interested in a 8 player feature if possible.
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For Donations:
https://paypal.me/mgerety
Every little bit is appreciated. Thanks guys!
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Hey Guys,
So, I've gotten some very generous donations from two members here that wanted an (up to) 8 player variant. Their interface example was BeerBall. I would like to eventually update the interface to be able to score in that way (and I have some ideas of how to do this). However, for the time being, I implemented an (up to 8 player) classic skeeball variant where each player alternates every 3 balls.
For now, it's tentatively called Skee8.
Menu
(https://i.imgur.com/iNyMJdt.png)
Ingame
(https://i.imgur.com/sDWZ8cM.png)
Gameplay Video
https://youtu.be/N4gzh_9tJm4 (https://youtu.be/N4gzh_9tJm4)
This is a functional game using the "DART GAME* sound effects, for now.
What I'd like to add:
- Bowling Style Scoring (see score for each "frame")
- Countdown clock per player
- Tie-breakers
- Updated sound and graphics
- Animated winner indicators
However, this is usable for now. I'll package it up sometime today or tomorrow.
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Potential future design for Skee8 -- which is now 8-shot, and I'm sure the name will change another few times as well.
(https://i.imgur.com/UqX0sQM.png)
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Nipsmg, You Da Man!! Thanks and can’t wait for different graphics.
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I did some rearranging. I think I like this layout better.
Player 1-4 active:
(https://i.imgur.com/DwPcbO8.png)
Player 5-8 active:
(https://i.imgur.com/aBB2uRJ.png)
Thoughts?
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Spent some more time this morning before work and on lunch break to implement a working version of this.
InGame Screenshot:
(https://i.imgur.com/MCRuFLN.png)
Video:
https://youtu.be/YdZEQihUUmg (https://youtu.be/YdZEQihUUmg)
Currently missing:
- Game over indicator
- Player Turn Change Indicator
- Winner Indicator
- Sounds
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This looks Awesome!!
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Looks Great!
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EightShot Changes:
- Added game over graphics
- Added player change graphics
- Added Winner indicators
Missing:
Video:
https://youtu.be/EtQugCF3Fng (https://youtu.be/EtQugCF3Fng)
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Looks Great. The look is very similar to my beerball. The name is clever too. I like it. I can't wait to try it out . Keep us posted on finished product. I have another donation coming for you as well. If you wanted another game to implement i have an antique one that is a 6 player and scores kind of like bowling but with some bonus mulitplyier scoring. It is also a 3 ball rotation per round. I have another friend that really likes it and would be wiling to donate toward the creation of it. It sounds like you are pretty busy so maybe after the first of the year or whenever it slows down for you we could touch base if you wanted to do it. If not the 8 shot fills my need and is much appreciated.
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OmahaPaul - Dump any specifics you can about how that game works and I'm sure i can get something implemented for you guys.
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So, I could really use a graphic designer because my score graphics SUCK... but here's EightShot with sound and some pop-up score indicators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y4_i__H9qg
EDIT:
There are still some bugs. timing is off too--. I don't love the player change "banners" that much anymore.. I'm thinking I should have pop-up notifications for player change.. And the Scoring should't pop up and overlay -- I'm almost thinking I should wait until the score indicator disappears before showing the player change banner.
I'm open to suggsestions/thoughts.
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Completely agree with you on the Popup and overlay.
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I've got Skee Ball Too with a bad display and in my hunt for one of those
If you still want a replacement display check out http://www.kahr.us/ Rob made a very nice direct replacement with LEDs. I have it on my Model S and it is awesome, very very simple to install.
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I've got Skee Ball Too with a bad display and in my hunt for one of those
If you still want a replacement display check out http://www.kahr.us/ Rob made a very nice direct replacement with LEDs. I have it on my Model S and it is awesome, very very simple to install.
Thanks, but Skee Ball Too uses a DMD of sorts, not the same display as the S. But I seriously don't even care now...just need to find the time to do this upgrade instead. I'm sorta waiting until it runs on an rPi easily, though.
--Donnie
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I've got Skee Ball Too with a bad display and in my hunt for one of those
If you still want a replacement display check out http://www.kahr.us/ Rob made a very nice direct replacement with LEDs. I have it on my Model S and it is awesome, very very simple to install.
Thanks, but Skee Ball Too uses a DMD of sorts, not the same display as the S. But I seriously don't even care now...just need to find the time to do this upgrade instead. I'm sorta waiting until it runs on an rPi easily, though.
--Donnie
I would just keep your eyes open for a laptop with a busted screen. You're using a monitor or tv as the screen for this project anyways, and can be had for super cheap. That is what I am using now. Picked up for 20 dollars. Install windows and you're off to the races. I mounted mine on the side and have mouse and keyboard controls if needed. I was using a Zbox but that is in another project now. Any questions on setup, optical sensors power supply, or anything to get you up and going, just ask. This software is amazing and windows make it a snap. You will be up and playing in no time
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I hear you, and while I’m sure I could get it to work under Windows, the fact is I hate Windows and I’m much better on pretty much any other OS than I am Windows. And I’m just not in a hurry to get to this project right now as I have a few other more pressing projects to get through first.
Believe me, I *can* do it that way. If I wanted the machine now, I would do it that way. But ultimately, once someone gets it working on an rPi, that will be an even more simple way to do it.
—Donnie
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Well, until I get it on another OS (which is #6 on my priority list at the moment), grab an Atomic Pi if you want a cheap solution. My machine is running on a $35 Atomic Pi.
It will likely be running on an rPi4 if at all. There are too many hoops to get MonoGame working properly on an rPI3, especially with the audio and OpenGL ES drviers. And MonoGame runs dog slow in non-accelerated mode, even for a completely 2D experience like I have. I've toyed with moving it to FNA, which would require very little code rework, but there are some thing I need to understand about it, and for that I need time, and time is the one commodity I'm very short on these days.
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Hi Nipsmg
I can't PM you for somw reason. Could you PM me, I have some questions, and would like to share
What you've inspired me to build, I'm pretty proud. 😁
Nada
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364791)
After purchasing a SkeeBall Model H and following the Skee-Ball threads on BYOAC, I've started creating a suite of SkeeBall games to run in my cabinet. This thread will chronicle progress on the software. I plan on eventually releasing it publicly.
Most of the games ideas were taken from other software that's been developed by other members including ThatPurpleStuff and a posting by SJAAK. Others come from dart games.
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364789)
Want to be a tester??
Info here : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1646011.html#msg1646011 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1646011.html#msg1646011)
Want to try out the Alpha SDK and E-Book for Creating Add-On Games?
Info here :
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1655066.html#msg1655066 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1655066.html#msg1655066)
Download the software with optical support -- alpha release
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1690637.html#msg1690637 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,156300.msg1690637.html#msg1690637)
Features:
- Resolution Independence - Defaults to 720p but will letterbox for any 4:3 resolutions
- Cross Platform - Made as a DesktopGL MonoGame project, it can be complied to run on Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.
- High-Score Keeping
- In-game instructions and game information
- Attract Mode
- Developer SDK (Developers can create new games and extend the platform via an SDK to be provided at release)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364768)
Video
Is youtube embedding broken?!
Alpha Gameplay Demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97h6z8fQizI&feature=youtu.be)
Graphical Menu Implementation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJaGjzYSnkk&feature=youtu.be)
Attract Mode Demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAaO1qqhs9g&feature=youtu.be)
Games:
Bowling
Number of Players
1-4 players (selectable)
Game Description:
Bowling plays and scores just like normal bowling. The 10 - 50 hole award 1-5 pins respectively with the 100 pockets being an automatic strike or spare. There is a constantly rotating number of extra pins that can be added to a throw, indicated by a Extra Pins indicator on the game screen (idea taken from ThatPurpleStuff's bowling implementation)
Game Features:
- 1-4 players selectable at round start.
- Exciter Animations (With sound) for Strikes, Spares, Turkey, and Gutter balls
- Ambient bowling alley background sound
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364762)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364764)
Classic
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
Classic SkeeBall.
Get the highest possible score in 9 balls
Game Features:
- Authentic SkeeBall Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365009)
Skeeball Bonus
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FreeSkee by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Hit the same pocket repeatedly for up to 5x bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Bonus Multipliers by hitting same pocket multiple times.
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365782)
Skeemax
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
A riff off of FlashPoint by ThatPurpleStuff.
Classic Skeeball Gameplay with a bonus multiplier! Time your shots for maximum bonus!
Game Features:
- Classic Gameplay
- Constantly rotating bonus multiplier
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365802)
Stanger in the Alps
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
This is essentially the Cliffhanger game from ThatPurpleStuff's skeeball software with a name change (an ode to Lebowski fans).
Progress from 10 through 100 in a few balls as possible before time runs out.
Game Features:
- background music
- Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364772)
Whack-A-Hole
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
Whack-A-Mole.
Score the most points in 9 balls by trying to hit the mole. Only balls that hit the mole score.
Game Features:
- Background music
- Mole Sound Effects
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364774)
Skricket
Number of Players
2 (not selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on the classic dart game, cricket.
Each players gets 3 tries to attempt to hit the numbers listed on the left. After hitting a number 3 times, the player "closes" that number. If other players have not yet closed that number, the player can hit it again and gets the value of the hole added to their score. The object of the game is to close all numbers first with the highest score.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000 Cricket
Screenshot:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364770)
X10
Number of Players
1-4 (selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on the classic dart game (3/5/7/901).
All players start with 310 (or 510,710,910 depending on the game variant). The goal is to get to 0 first, hitting zero exactly. Each player takes turns throwing 3 balls each round. If a player goes under zero, their score gets reset to the score they had at the beginning of the round. The winner gets to 0 (exactly) first.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000
- Number of players selectable at round start
- Game Variant (310/510/710/910) selectable at game start.
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364756)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364758)
X20 ZAP
Number of Players
1-4 (selectable)
Game Description:
A riff on 321 ZAP from Merit Games (a popular game on the Scorpion 9000 Arcade Dart Board).
All players start with zero, and the goal is to get to the game score (320/520/720/920 depending on the variant) by hitting holes and adding the value of the hole to your score. Each player throws 3 balls each round. If the player goes over the game score, the overage gets subtracted from their round starting score, and they lose their turn. The winner gets to the game score first.
The Twist: If at any time while playing your score exactly matches another player's score, that player is "zapped" back down to zero and has to start from zero.
Game Features:
- Sound Effects from Scorpion 9000
- Number of players selectable at round start
- Game Variant (320/520/720/920) selectable at game start.
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364760)
Riskee
Number of Players
1
Game Description:
This is a riff off "Skeel of 40s" from FreeSkee.
There is a "Bonus Chooser" to the right of the scoring area that starts off with the following bonuses:
- 2 Balls
- 4 Balls
- 6 Balls
- 8 Balls
- Clear Bombs
- 250 Points
- 500 Points
- 750 Points
- 1k Points
Scoring works as standard scoring with the following additions:
If you hit any hole other than 40, your score increases by that amount, and one of the open bonuses is replaced with a bomb.
If you hit 40, the bonus chooser spins. You are either awarded a bonus, or hit "Clear Bombs" or hit a bomb.
Clear Bombs will remove any of the bombs in the bonus chooser.
A bomb will force the bomb defuser to pop up. It will count down from 5.
If you hit a 100 pocket before time is up, the bomb will defuse. If you hit any other pocket or time runs out, the bomb goes off and you lose all your points.
Game Features:
- Animated graphics and sound effects.
- Bonuses (extra balls AND/OR points)
- High Scoring Ability
Gameplay Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnRh9_296I&feature=youtu.be)
Screenshots:
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365359)
(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=365361)
ToDo
Add in high-score systemAdd final sound effects for classicSound Effects for 310/320ZAPGame Over graphics for classicAdd a sound effect for going over the game score in zap/x10Convert bowling scoring grid into drawable components (fixes text overlay on top of bowling exciter animations)Implement FreeSkee variantImplement FlashPoint variantRemove text-based menu and implement graphical menuFinish attract mode implementationImplement system-wide game instructions functionalityAdd system-wide game-over drawablegamecomponentAdd system-wide "You're up player X" component.- Code clean-up and refactoring
- Create sample game project for SDK
- Blog post for Game Creation
Add round displays for x10 and zap
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I can't PM you for somw reason.
Now that you're a Jr. Member, your PM system is enabled. :cheers:
Scott
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Hey guys, I’ve stalled out a bit on this as I’m just finishing up the new community server to enable tournaments for PGA Tour Team Challenge edition. Should be launching that this month, then I will circle back to this.
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Thank you Scott, much appreciated. Bare with me as I try and learn how this forum works. I've got a model H that I've been working on and would love to share with you guys. Everyone here has been inspirational on my journey into the world of Skee-Ball
Nada
I can't PM you for somw reason.
Now that you're a Jr. Member, your PM system is enabled. :cheers:
Scott
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This would be sweet on a Golden Tee cab. I've written a rudimentary bash script that interfaces with the I/O board to read trackball, buttons, etc. Interested in getting this to run
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
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This would be sweet on a Golden Tee cab. I've written a rudimentary bash script that interfaces with the I/O board to read trackball, buttons, etc. Interested in getting this to run
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
how would you intend for that to work? This doesn't allow for a virtual ball to be rolled. You need a real physical skeeball machine for this, scoring is measured by the ball activating the hole switches.
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Here are some pics of my setup. You can see the bracket inside the hole that houses the optical sensor. (every hole the same) Close up Sensor bracket pic is pointed down inside ball return lane for the gutter ball count. Arduino for lighting, ( still want to do more with the lighting) Pic of power supply I am using to power optical sensors hooked up to Ipac II. Joystick, Start(enter), exit button on side and volume control Pic. Also LED black light to make the playfield pop. Also gave the balls a coat of fluorescent paint and clear coat to give it a lava effect under black light. Also a pic of a smart controller. Hook computer to master and everything else will power on and off with the computer. I also added skeeball exe to windows startup so it will auto boot into the skeeball games menu when you power it up.
I just picked up a Skee Ball Lightning and I was wondering if you used the stock optics that came with the machine? I am sure i will have more questions later on.
Thanks
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Yes, I used the stock optics. A new power supply and Ipac II connected to the computer.
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Anyone who's actually using this have any suggestions for new games, features, etc?
I'd like to pick this back up at some point this summer -- I'd love some input.
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Anyone who's actually using this have any suggestions for new games, features, etc?
I'd like to pick this back up at some point this summer -- I'd love some input.
What about some sort of tug-of-war game. You could have each person throw 1 to 3 balls each and the score would move the other team closer to the pit in the middle.
I am not a programmer, but I am more than willing to help in any way that I can.
Jim
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That’s actually the sample game in the SDK. I never released it but people can build it from scratch following the guide. I can always add that in...
(https://i.imgur.com/RdqbTTr.png)
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I use it all the time and really like it! Building one for a friend now, is the alpha code still good to use? Last time I downloaded it was a year ago.
Thx
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Should be. I found a bunch of bugs I want to fix, so maybe a new release sometime this summer if I can find the time.
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(http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=149895.0;attach=364791)
After purchasing a SkeeBall Model H and following the Skee-Ball threads on BYOAC, I've started creating a suite of SkeeBall games to run in my cabinet. This thread will chronicle progress on the software. I plan on eventually releasing it publicly.
Greetings;
Would very much to join your testing group for this project! If you could let me know what is required to do so.
<a day or so later>
OK, had time to actually read through the entire thread and found the links! This should be fun!
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Should be. I found a bunch of bugs I want to fix, so maybe a new release sometime this summer if I can find the time.
So my wife was pissed when I brought home a Skee Ball machine. Now, she's hooked. She asks at dinner every night if we can go down and play after we put the baby down. She's hooked. I need to strike while the iron is hot to get another one.
I am going to keep my model S as is, but just picked up a 13 footer that I want to convert to this. Before I started I wanted to download the software to demo it.
Excellent job!
I am a newbie. I'm not going to even pretend to be savvy. But I want to help any way I can.
There's quite a few things that I've noticed while going through keystrokes on my keyboard. Before I make a list of everything that I noticed, I was curious if there was a newer version?
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No new versions yet, but I did just recently make some bug fixes and there is a good chance this will be getting a massive overhaul this winter so stay tuned!
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Hi!
I was wondering if you could help point me in the right direction with what to do with your files? I'm used to things being a little more plug-n-play, but not afraid to rll up my sleevs.
I've had a home built skeeball for 2 years now, just hadn't worked up the initiative to wire up electronic scoring.
I've picked up an Atomic Pi, and have that running, downloaded the Optical Support 'MLS' files that are for OpenGL (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ryh8buo4b6t5nkq/MLS-OPTICAL-DesktopGL.zip?dl=0), and I believe I have monogame installed per the directions on monogame.net, though I'm not entirely confident I do. That's where it gets fuzzy for me - no programmer, but I've been my RPi arcade cabinet, and Visual Pinball Cabinet
I guess I'm wondering what file(s) of yours do I need to open, and in what to get it running? Hopefully this isn't way too much of a tech support issue for you. I'd love to move beyond the paper and pencil scoring method.
Whatever help you can provide would be appreciated. I'm planning on doing a build thread, and I hope I can get the scoring figured out to finish it up.
Thanks!
Here's what it looks like without any technical wizardry:
(https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPxcNkCaGQRQz-t6UHi6a2WltRrcQENcVJZyW39?hl=en)
(https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMjsI8wmW3WWd5H_CPd0HtdbZeQPNlEjHwVgicO?hl=en)
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My kids play it a lot. One thing I suggest is changing it so you can't exit the game entirely. My kids do this and then can't relaunch it. Basically a key for back and a separate key to escape the game.
I'm building a second one for a friend. This is a 13' model with the traditional plastic funnel catch. I think I'll be using the configuration for physicalSwitches. Do I need a ball drain for that? Looks like I do. So can I use the existing wiring and map all the holes to "A" for 10pt (then 50pt for the tops), or do I need to rewire them individually? Edit: Had to do them individually then mounted a ball drain at the bottom.
One comment. Mine works fine with no ball drain switch in OpticalWithGutterDetect, I never figured out how to add one, and with some of the games where speed counts more than anything, I don't think I'd want one based on my set up. Basically gutterballs are freebees.
Especially with the 13' model, I've found it best to use 2 KeyWiz's from Groovey Game gear. One for the controls, one for the holes. Worth the extra $40.
Looking forward to an updated version!
Another request: On the Exit page where it says hit the yellow button, my button is white, would be nice if you could select the color via config file.
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I tried the Pi route but found it very easy to just use a $100 Windows PC stick.
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I tried the Pi route but found it very easy to just use a $100 Windows PC stick.
Yeah, I might be getting to that point. I've gone pretty far down a bunch of Linux rabbit holes with no success. Seemed like if I could get Wine running Monogame, I should be able to open the MLS .exe file, but I've hit wall after wall. Like I said, I'm no programmer. Got the program running on a neighboring PC, but that's not going into the skeeball.
I was hopeful I could get it running on the Atomic Pi, but so far, no dice.
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So I've abandoned the idea of getting this to run on the Linux Atomic Pi.
I've gone and installed Windows Lite on the APi instead, and after a day of wrestling with driver issues, finally have it running with audio on the APi. Now to reconfigure my controls and get the IR sensors wired.
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I am currently making plans to build a skeeball this summer I just grabbed the bulk of wood, bwith all my builds I like to start with the system prior to the woodworking.
I'm wondering how do I get this software? Is it available, I would love to run it.
The work you have put in is quite amazing.
Thanks in advance
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Hi, thanks so much for creating this software and making it available. I have a couple of bugs and a request if that's ok.
0. In Skeeball, the screen reads Balls Played, but counts down to 0 instead of up to 9. It's been a while since I've played actual Skeeball, but is that how it normally goes? I would think that it should count up to 9 for balls played.
1. In Skeemax, if you take 2nd place, it shows up as 2rd.
My request is, in Skeeball, is it possible to have it configured to have the Free Game blink when the game is not in process? I didn't add a coin/mech so it's always free.
Thanks!
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0: I noticed that. Should be an easy fix when I get to it.
1: that’s awesome.
— I can try. I won’t have time to work on this for a while though. I kept hoping I would get to it but work has been insane. .
I am currently making plans to build a skeeball this summer I just grabbed the bulk of wood, bwith all my builds I like to start with the system prior to the woodworking.
I'm wondering how do I get this software? Is it available, I would love to run it.
The work you have put in is quite amazing.
Thanks in advance
Send me a private message and I’ll get you a build.
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This development is great, please keep up the good work. I helped a co-worker get this up and running for a machine that they had but did not have all the controls for. I found the forum to be a great resource. It does take some tinkering but I cannot wait to play it when it is reassembled. I recently created a Visual basic app to help assist in restarting the program when you back out, and if it is just running on a Windows box without a mouse/keyboard it is only possible to restart with a power cycle.
Mostly wanted to give kudos to nipsmg, for all the wonderful effort they have put into this project. I am super interested in the SDK builds and working through the ebook but it appears I need a few post before I can PM!
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it appears I need a few post before I can PM!
You should be good to go now. :cheers:
Scott
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So, I could really use a graphic designer because my score graphics SUCK... but here's EightShot with sound and some pop-up score indicators.
I can assist you with the graphics. Tell me what you need and I can produce them!! This is a great project. I'd love to get the latest release. I plan on modding a 10' Barrington Billiards Roll and Score Game.
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So, I could really use a graphic designer because my score graphics SUCK... but here's EightShot with sound and some pop-up score indicators.
I can assist you with the graphics. Tell me what you need and I can produce them!! This is a great project. I'd love to get the latest release. I plan on modding a 10' Barrington Billiards Roll and Score Game.
That would be awesome.. I want to release a public version of this but I really need to update some of the graphics in the game and to change out some completely.. I'm will try to log into windows tomorrow and get you a windows build.
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I am building a Skee Ball for my bar in Vietnam. I am building from scratch and the software will be the last step. I am interested in testing your software. Are there any instructions? Also what computer do you use, etc.
thanks for any information
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I created an account just to say thanks for developing and sharing this software. I picked up a 13’ Skee Ball Extreme bowler and plan to install your software package. My family is going to love multiplayer gameplay. I will post a followup once complete, and sharing a “before” photo now.
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Awesome. I've been insanely busy with work and a consulting job taking up 100% of my time, so I'm not always online and haven't had made any updates to the software in a while, but it works -- please feel free to reach out here if you have any questions and I'll TRY to respond when I can.
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Awesome. I've been insanely busy with work and a consulting job taking up 100% of my time, so I'm not always online and haven't had made any updates to the software in a while, but it works -- please feel free to reach out here if you have any questions and I'll TRY to respond when I can.
Hello NIPSMG,
The software is excellent, and my family particularly enjoys the Zapp game. I’d love to customize the sounds a bit. For the Classic game, I noticed there are scoring sound clips for each value but they aren’t used in the game. Am I able to turn those on somehow?
I took a demo video to show a friend, and sharing here so you can see my setup. I also want to do some cool things with lighting. Thanking addressable LED strips that react when you score.
https://imgur.com/a/gE2qExq
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Side note, I’d also love a copy of the e-book on SDK development. Would be great to learn!
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Finally found my old kadevice minimus 32 board and set it up for the default keystrokes but wondering how this software will activate a ball release and through what medium (what device will send the signal instead of receiving signals. Haven't seen how activating the ball release solenoid is done with this software.
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Awesome. I've been insanely busy with work and a consulting job taking up 100% of my time, so I'm not always online and haven't had made any updates to the software in a while, but it works -- please feel free to reach out here if you have any questions and I'll TRY to respond when I can.
Hello NIPSMG,
The software is excellent, and my family particularly enjoys the Zapp game. I’d love to customize the sounds a bit. For the Classic game, I noticed there are scoring sound clips for each value but they aren’t used in the game. Am I able to turn those on somehow?
I took a demo video to show a friend, and sharing here so you can see my setup. I also want to do some cool things with lighting. Thanking addressable LED strips that react when you score.
https://imgur.com/a/gE2qExq
One thing you can do is to use a different sound file - problem is they are xnb format. Textract will pull wav files from the XNBs for you and you can use a wav to xnb converter (found one somewhere that worked) and then just rename the file to the original sound name. I tried this out successfully to replace the SkeeBallSong. Note - longer songs will just keep playing till they are done. Waiting to get source code so I can make more changes.
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Hello NIPSMG,
The software is excellent, and my family particularly enjoys the Zapp game. I’d love to customize the sounds a bit. For the Classic game, I noticed there are scoring sound clips for each value but they aren’t used in the game. Am I able to turn those on somehow?
I took a demo video to show a friend, and sharing here so you can see my setup. I also want to do some cool things with lighting. Thanking addressable LED strips that react when you score.
https://imgur.com/a/gE2qExq
Addressible LED lighting has been a plan for some time now. I have already prototyped the hardware using an ESP32 and some custom arduino code along with the .net serial interface to control it. I just don't have the time to add it.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZosQYO6l.jpg)
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So I was getting multiple switch hits with the software on my custom game that uses mechanical switches for ball scoring. Ball will only go over the switch for its point value but may bounce and get up multiple 'hits' within less than a second. Set game mode to 'PhysicalSwitches' in the config.json file but still getting multiple switch hits. Is there a fix for the multi0ple scoring? Every target also only counts for 10, rather than 20/30/40/50. I assume that's the mode but wondering if OpticalWithBallDrain is the better setting...
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Can this all be played with a trackball?
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Can this all be played with a trackball?
Nipsmg's software is for a physical SkeeBall build.
If you're looking for a videogame version of SkeeBall that uses a trackball controller, check out eds1275's Ramp & Roll.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140795.0.html (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,140795.0.html)
Scott
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We are still loving the software. I asked this question previously, but wanted to try again. I was able to swap in some different game start music, but want to enable sounds when the ball scores each time. I noticed there are scoring sound clips for each value but they aren’t used in the game. Am I able to turn those on somehow?
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Wow I've been asleep for a while and missed a lot of fun. I will catch up on this thread, but if you need any more game ideas I have so many and I'll never get to them as I've been making Skee Ball games in Adobe Flash for about a decade now. I almost started over and redid them all in Unity, but it is too much work so I am still doing Flash games for my machine. I just added full color lighting to mine, and am currently updating all my games to work in full color. I added high scoring on some of them as well. I'll post when I have enough progress for it to be worthwhile. This looks great keep up the good work. Here is a teaser of my full-color set-up in progress with the first game made specifically to use all the lighting to the fullest.
https://imgur.com/a/0E1pfQ0
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cool man .. I'm hoping I can get back to it this summer, and DEFINITELY plan on doing LED integration-- I wrote a ESP32 program that was serial driveable via C# -- I'll have to get back to it.
I'd love to talk about game ideas and see some of yours. I always wanted to learn Unity as well -- this is done in MonoGame, but I might pivot to unity-- who knows.
This is IF i get spare time-- which is not likely now -- working 2 nearly full time jobs AND taking flight lessons. :-/
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If there are any new releases for custom software, I would love to be a volunteer tester. Happy bowling all!
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This is awesome, I bought 3 Xtreme Skeeball machines last week and then found this thread.
I have one of them up and running on this software and I love it
A couple of questions
How do i get a copy of the ebook? When I click on the link from the front page it takes me to the summary of chapters but I can not find a download link
Second, when I run the software there is some information in the top left of the screen (resolution, number of players, etc) How do I get that turned off
Great software, I am really enjoying playing with it
Thanks
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Well I figured out how to get the information off of the top left of the screen.
It looks like this is not being worked on anymore
Thanks for the software, it really is a lot of fun
I would still love to have the ebook if it is still available
Thanks again
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I still have it, I actually found it this weeken. I’ll put it somewhere today for download.
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So, I decided to pick this up and do a little work on it.. and I've made some interesting progress:
(https://i.imgur.com/OowHDb3l.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qTrVbwFl.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Kemw1Y3l.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/siumVYEl.jpg)
I've fully upgraded the project to the newest version of MonoGame, and have it running successfully on a Raspberry Pi. This was really one of the original intentions, to get it running on SBCs for installation in a skeeball cabinet-- and that dream is now a reality.
I've got a little momentum here so there may be more to come..
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That is awesome!
Let me know if you need any testing done
Love the software
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Hello
I have been trying to get the software running on a rpi3 for weeks now. I am interested in how you have gotten it to work. Is there a github that has the complete image to get it up and running?
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Just found this project and am love the app so far. Lots of questions:
Is this still under dev?
Is an ipad-2 the best board?
Is there an pi-3/4/5 image to run this?
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Just found this project and am love the app so far. Lots of questions:
Is this still under dev?
Is an ipad-2 the best board?
Is there an pi-3/4/5 image to run this?
1. No, not really under active dev-- I don't have any time to do anything at the moment -- am working 2 jobs.
2. Board doesn't matter, as long as it's a keyboard encoder / can be mapped to keys.
3. I did recently create version updated to a new version of MonoGame and got it to run on a Pi4, but I don't have an image yet. Maybe someday in the next few months but I'm not promising anything. For now it's windows only.
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We are still loving the software. I asked this question previously, but wanted to try again. I was able to swap in some different game start music, but want to enable sounds when the ball scores each time. I noticed there are scoring sound clips for each value but they aren’t used in the game. Am I able to turn those on somehow?
No, it was the original intention, but it got annoying pretty quickly so I removed it.
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Maybe a dumb question, but is there a place to edit the text? As an example I noticed it says "2rd" place. I don't know anything about programming but I can edit config and XML files! I poked around but didn't find anything. I saw it was mentioned in a post from 2021.
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Maybe a dumb question, but is there a place to edit the text? As an example I noticed it says "2rd" place. I don't know anything about programming but I can edit config and XML files! I poked around but didn't find anything. I saw it was mentioned in a post from 2021.
that's a bug. I'll have to fix that this spring when I get a new final release out.
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(https://i.imgur.com/zREiSfF.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/NBarC4m.jpg)
Got my Pi5 in and had to at least get a POC running. Still have a ton of billing work to do so I wont' have a ton of time to work on it, but I'd like to get to it this spring.