Personalized game lists in PinballX

[tableking]

First off: I've got Pinballx up and running in my cab and I couldn't be happier. I'm discovering new things everyday that would have taken much more time in other front ends (if they were even possible to do). I made a donation to Pinballx for their efforts and hope they keep up the great development - it's appreciated.

Topic: One thing I can't seem to figure out is how the table selection menu is built. After you choose a table it brings up the menu where you can play that game, or choose (not in fron of me, going by memory) just "Bally" tables or "Stern" tables, etc.

I'd like to make a personalized list of games. Basically, I'd like to place all Future Pinball games into one category so all the BAM games come up by themselves. I'd like to do this so once you have the LED glasses on (for HT with dual PS3 eye cams) it only shows compatible games (and a guest player won't have to ask which games support the head tracking).

Thanks for any help on this!

[open6l]

What you can do is create a BAM.xml inside your PinballX/Future Pinball database folder and add only the BAM tables to that xml. Then you can select the BAM list from within PinballX and it will only show those tables in the list. Same goes for other systems.

I created a Future Pinball Zed.xml in my Future Pinball folder and added all my Zed tables. I also created a Marvel.xml, Zen.xml and Star Wars.xml in the Pinball FX2 and added the tables in the appropriate xml files. This way it keeps them separate if needed AND you can have them all displayed when choosing All Tables.

[zeenon]

tableking,

Check out the first pinned topic in this forum "Calling all PinballX gurus....." and download the last document I uploaded. I think I beat the snot out of this topic in the PinballX guide section 4.8. Currently the default groups 70's, 80's, Bally, Stern, Williams can not be edited.

I forgot to add one item so I'll update section 4.8 in the next hour, which you may like for your BAM games.

Z

[zeenon]

Added this to section 4.8 (document revision 1.02)

It would be great if someone can verify that this works: (I have it working, but another working setup to verify would be great)

How to not show tables under "All Tables" but JUST as a custom list in PBX. You know you can create custom lists inside PBX that are a subset of All Tables for example.....VP only, FP only, Zen only, Night only, etc. But if you want to have tables, which are NOT displayed, when you selected All Tables see below. (This is a great way to list only your test tables, and not have them in your main list of tables)

I have the following databases configured:

Visual Pinball

---Visual Pinball.xml

---VP Only

Future Pinball

---Future Pinball.xml

---FP Only.xml

Future Pinball - BAM <-----I did not want this when selecting All Tables

--Future Pinball - BAM.xml

--FP – BAM.xml

Pinball FX2

---Pinball FX2.xml

---Zen Only.xml

So by default PBX creates a database that matches the new system....if you populate that DB those tables will show up on the All Tables list, if you delete it....none of the custom databases for that system will show up.

So my Future Pinball - BAM.xml contains:

<menu>

</menu>

and my FP – BAM.xml contains:

<menu>

<game name="A Nightmare On Elm Street 1.05 ZED">

<description>A Nightmare On Elm Street 1.05 ZED</description>

<manufacturer></manufacturer>

<year></year>

<type></type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>-1</rating>

</game>

<game name="Aladdin's Castle ULTIMATE 1.01 (Bally 1976) PHY2.6">

<description>Aladdin's Castle (Bally 1976)</description>

<manufacturer>Bally</manufacturer>

<year>1976</year>

<type>EM</type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>-1</rating>

</game>

<game name="Back to the Future 1.02 Ultra (Data East 1990) ZED">

<description>Back to the Future (Data East 1990)</description>

<manufacturer>Data East</manufacturer>

<year>1990</year>

<type>SS</type>

<hidedmd>True</hidedmd>

<hidebackglass>True</hidebackglass>

<enabled>True</enabled>

<rating>0</rating>

</game>

etc etc etc

</menu>

Now these tables don't show when I start PBX up (under All Tables), and only come up when I select the FP - BAM tables custom selection item.

[tableking]

Thanks for the info Open6l!

[tableking]

zeenon - I created a "Future Pinball - BAM" XML file and confirmed this works exactly as you described. Thanks so much for the examples and info!

This is exactly what I wanted to do - this forum is great.

[Zeiram]

What if I want to completely eliminate this menu? Gamex appears to have a simple menu setting that strips away some of this "complexity." I'd really like to just hit start on a wheel selection and have the table load. Hitting start a second time is a minor but unecessary step for the way I'd like my cab to function.