2 Screen Virtual Pinball Cab and GameEx - a few questions

[thedevilbunny]

Ok, as promised, here's a little video we made to show my pinball project. We've pretty much finished up software wise...I still need to add a few buttons and the plunger, but otherwise it's done. I'm pondering a way to add a menu item to access the great tutorial videos over at pinball.org, but so far I haven't gotten the in gameex browser to orient things the right way. Still, at this point it's just icing on the cake.

http://youtu.be/60qGYFDY38s]

[Tom Speirs]

Wow. Thats made my day. Thanks for sharing

[rockyrocket]

Well done, do you have any shots of the cabinet in daylight?.

Also is gameex managing to save highscores on exit?, I know some work went into fplaunch to get score saving sorted.

Are the B2s tables displaying correctly aswell?, if not you could use fplaunch to call both FP and VP.

But i have to say gameex does seem to be doing a great job in this set up.

[thedevilbunny]

Well, as you know if you fool with Future Pin and Visual PIn, the high score saves are not straight forward for sure. I can say that both emulators are saving the scores..at least on the machines I've tried that save them (example being STNG for visual and pretty much all for Future PIn). That said, other then in game settings I've got no idea how to display them in GameEx...I've setup FPlaunch before but it's not something i've tried to get to function with GameEx. I've actually been looking into how those scores are kept to come up with a way to display them from the frontend, but so far i've not really dug into it much.

I'll shoot some well lit pics for you...you can look the machine up on IPDB.org to get a better view...search for "Star Battle".

[rockyrocket]

Pause break will show FP high score in game and is saving them on my mame cab within gameex.

Somewhere i have a copy of fplaunch that i modded to work with gameex (think just one line needed changing) i can dig it out.

That being said it only really helped with hiding loading stuff and some focus issues, and ofcourse the loading can be hidded with hide desktop for FP and a loader for VP.

Mind if I ask why you chose gameex for this purpose over the other FE?.

I love gameex for multi emu cabs as its just so mature but for pincabs its not my first choice, but then oddly i would never use hyperspin personally.

A bit of topic but can gameex launch straight into a single mame rom on start up as mala can? (prolly should ask that in its own thread sorry)

[thedevilbunny]

A good question. The short answer to why GameEx on a pincab...I didn't start off going that route. I've used GameEx for EVERY machine I've built over the years, but everyone was using another frontend for 2 screen pins, and I figured i'd give it a shot..if for any reason to just fool with the other frontend. I spent ALOT of grueling days working on that install. One thing people don't know about the other frontend..it's NOT intuitive. With GameEx, it shows you what you have to play..with the other one it shows you EVERYTHING..then it's your job to make the stuff fit. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine frontend...very glitzy and very showy. HOWEVER, GameEx is not only more versatile, it's easier to setup, gives me a ton more options, AND is constantly supported and updated. Another big reason, usability. We always have HUGE multiple game lists on our arcade emulation cabs...gameex is easier to navigate quickly...the same is true for the pins. We (my brother and I) fancy ourselves as game players..we like our machines to accommodate that. We want speedy access to everything..GameEx delivers.

Honestly, after toiling away for a few months on the software side with the other frontend..and finishing btw, I was like 'Hmm...wonder if the old standby could be used on here'...and that was all it took. That was prolly less then a month ago, and here we are.

As for FPLaunch..I have it setup on the other emm rig..I thought about adapting it too but I can't justify it to myself to bother..like you said it only covers the load spam and give you a few pause options...meh. I might change my mind tho...but right now I think i'm satisfied. What'd be cool is if GameEx could load the table highscores up in the front end like it does the mame high scores..a much more elegant solution.

[rockyrocket]

Good answers, I know what you mean about having a nice text menu driven FE for fast game browsing i totaly agree, thats why i like gameex too.

I do admit to using hyperpin on my pincab as with only about 150 games and an SSD, flicking through is fine and i like some of the ways the menu has specific pinball functions (F3 ect).

Also as you say gameex is easy to set up and can do anything i can think of.

My last two cabs have both run mala though but that is only because they are one game theme cabs (starwars and tron) and if a cab only runs mame then i am thinking i will stick with mala, but for the full cab package then yeah gameex all the way.

[Tom Speirs]

Actually, there is a high score app for pinball out there. Ben gave me a nudge about integrating it into GameEx and has spoke to the developer of it about it. Ill look into.

[rockyrocket]

The one by DNAdisturber? that would be good!.

So while you are about tom, how can i set gameex up to launch straight into one mame rom with no splash screens or distractions as mala will?.

Sorry again for hyjacking the thread.

[Tom Speirs]

So while you are about tom, how can i set gameex up to launch straight into one mame rom with no splash screens or distractions as mala will?.

Sorry again for hyjacking the thread.

Its not possibly currently but even a batch file can do that, no?

[rockyrocket]

Could use a bat file yes, but with mala i can launch into a set rom at boot then when i exit out of game i am then into the games menu to pick another or have acces to a shutdown menu.

I dont know how popular this feature is but in some cases ie a pacman or donkey kong themed cab its a nice touch.

[Tom Speirs]

OK, I see. I guess I could add that option.

[rockyrocket]

Great thank you.

So to get back on topicare you adding any force feedback thedevilbunny?.

[thedevilbunny]

Actually, I do have a tilt function on the machine, Rocky. We're using the old MS Sidewinder Freestyle gamepad gimmick. One of the drawbacks to using a machine like ours is that it's SO wide and bulky down low, it's REAL hard to get a tilt or affect the ball all that much...i'm still fine tuning that. That's the first I've heard of pinemhi...if you could work that into the game submenu's Tom, that would be quite an awesome deal.

[rockyrocket]

Sounds good!, i have been thinking about adding a sidewinder as i already have one but at the mo my tilt is handled with mercury switches and optionally a second set of flipper buttons.

The one drawback for me is that i have become lazy and just tilt using the buttons, so much so that when i get to play a real pin i try to find said non existant buttons .

Any contactors for force feedback?, would not go back myself ,even have two hooked to flipper buttons on my mame cab -just love them.

The shape of yours is really interesting as i have not seen any before, seems quite versatile for lots of differing emulation just imagine it with a touchscreen.

[thedevilbunny]

Have just ran into another wacky issue..and this one may be me overstretching a good thing, but what the hell. I pulled down some of the PAPA video pinball tutorials...I figured i'd stick them in the appropriate tables under the "TV Advert" area so I could watch 'em before I played..they are quite great. Anyway, after I got a few install, I ran gameex...the previews worked fine but when I tried to go full screen..crash. So I turned off the change resolution setting...now it works but doesn't correctly display the full screen video..it doesn't know theres a 90 degree shift going on. I tried setting up a webpage under this same setup and got the same deal..it was not in vert mode. I guess I'm asking if anyone knows a work around..or if there is one. I hesitated to even ask something so trivial, but I figure someone else might wanna know, and I'm definitely interested. Any thoughts?