Emulating Android on a pincab?.

[rockyrocket]

So I have just been discovering Bluestacks and its android emulation and have to say its a breeze to use.

I had war pinball Hd up and semi working in 20 mins, once a game is installed you can launch it either via a shortcut or from the commandline.

This should make it great for PinballX, not that I have got that far yet though .

The main caveat to having a tablet game on a pincab is of course input, and in my brief test I just used a mouse.

Apparently you can map keys for tipping/tilting the table and I am sure AHK would map flipper buttons to a mouse click at the right place on screen.

The issue I see is the plunger as without a mouse how are you to pull back?.

So my question is has anyone tried this before and how could we get around the plunger problem?.

[Sir Cheddar]

Hmm, looks interesting. I don't see a way for keys but for Nantech/VirtuaPin plunger kits - apparently it is possible to use a joystick to emulate a mouse with xpadder.

I think I'll give it a try one day - it might be worth it for Rob-o-Bot alone

[rockyrocket]

Xpadders mouse emulation may be a way yes.

I still need to RTFM for bluestacks and have not looked for a forum so may well be reinventing the wheel.

I thinks AHK`s MouseClickDrag should also work to map the plunger to a keypress maybe?.

Bluestacks can apparently use a gamepad if the app itself is compatible.

I found some time today to play with this and also try out Rob-O-Bot , and without bothering about plungers got it to work.

BUT my flipper method sucks, you have no control as you cannot hold the flipper up its just a digital keypress.

Anyone know how to hold a mouse button down analogue in AHK?.

If any of you fancy a go at this bluestacks is free whilst in beta and can be found here... http://www.bluestacks.com/

And a great tool to root your install and strip out some of the bloat is here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2565644

Todays testing was mostly done with Pinball rocks, but Rob-O-Bot is just perfect for this too.

And here is the Ahk wrapper used to load Pinball Rocks, but yes it still needs work

#NoEnvCoordMode, Mouse, WindowDetectHiddenWindows On#WinActivateForceRun, "C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate\iRotate.exe" /rotate=90 Sleep, 500Run, "C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks\HD-RunApp.exe" Android com.sonybmg.pinballrockshd com.sonybmg.pinballrockshd.RockPinballSplashWinWait,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dWinActivate,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dWinWaitActive,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dProcess, WaitClose,HD-Frontend.exeRun, "C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate\iRotate.exe" /rotate=0ExitAppE::Run, "C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks\HD-Quit.exe"  ;Exits gameLShift::Click, 373,  1687 Left, DownSleep, 100Click, 373,  1687  Left, UpRShift::Click, 845, 1687 Left, DownSleep, 100Click, 845, 1687 Left, Up

[rockyrocket]

It would seem that although I have some better flipper code android already have some apps that should do what we need.
Bluestacks also use .cfg files for each games input including mapping a physical key to a spot on screen.

Rob-O-Bot kindly already uses arrow left/right for flippers and arrow down for plunger, so this was easy to get working .
The plunger is mapped to my virtuapin device with xpadder and is only digital but works better than expected.

[rockyrocket]

Soo I finally got this figured out,

Bluestacks is a little devil to get running from a front-end as it seems to be more of a VM than an emulator and PinballX would get confused when the process it was watching closed so would just exit and loose focus.

It was fine if I just set up one game through a wrapper as that process stayed alive, but setting bluestacks up as an emu was like a FE starting a second FE Any way its sorted now.

Keymapping was done with a tool called Aurora that works great giving you a grid overlay of your screen that you click on and then map a physical key to that screen coordinate.

One thing to note is that on win7 64bit it will crash if you leave the box ticked to place the cfg file in the bluestacks default location.

Untick this then you will find your new cfg file in your documents folder.

Just place your .cfg`s into C:\Android\BlueStacks\UserData\InputMapper, this userdata folder also has a shared folder with windows to copy files to and from android - said it was more of a VM!.

A better method for mapping a plunger needs to be found but I think an app called Gamekeyboard may be the answer.

I set up Rob-O-Bot , War Pinball and Pinball Rocks and attach all the artwork, scripts, XML`s ect used and my settings are as below,

you will probably need to edit your keybindings in Bluestacks.ahk and compile.

A flappy bird clone is also installed and is almost a perfect cab game , in some ways I think non pinball android games are more suitable for this screen set up than mame.

Anyone have any suggestions for good games to add?.

Android script.zip

[rockyrocket]

Forgot to mention above that i use L+R for flippers and 1 to start games in the CFG`s and use xpadder to map my virtuapin plunger to "down".

And just because you can.............

[nullPointer]

Wow, this is really cool rockyrocket! Thanks for sharing your pioneering endeavors to get this up and running!

[jupiter]

Awesome stuff rockyrocket. I must try and get robo-o-bot running on my cabinet. Thanks for all the effort and info!

Out of interest how responsive are the flippers - is their any noticable lag, etc?

[rockyrocket]

Thanks, Rob-O-Bot runs almost perfectly you can even post pass!, the other tables are generally nowhere near as good.

Since first doing this I have found that the best way to set this up is to...

-1 install then root straight away on the clean untouched install using the tool linked above and also use this to remove the bloat.

-2 After debloating you need to install a new launcher (atom or nova) from a .Apk (just double click it).

Android assistant can export a back up of your apps from another android device as a .Apk

-3 Fullscreen will remove the bottom softkeys from the screen.

-4 Giving bluestacks more memory adds a speed boost, but is said to be unstable if given more that 2Gb.

You can do this by a reg edit at....

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BlueStacks\Guests\Android]
"Memory"=dword:

I gave my install 2Gb (2000).

Its a shame you can not change the scrolling view on Rob-O-Bot but is a fun little addition to a cab I think.

So any of you have any other suggestions for suitable android games?.

[jupiter]

Thanks again Rockyrocket for the detailed instructions. I can't wait to try this although I am not back with the cab for a few weeks .

For other games I guess the key thing they need to be controller friendly. Things controlled by one or two buttons should work. How about the Tinywings type games such as Dragon Fly Free or Ski Stickman, where you use one button with a long press making a difference to the control of the player. Will try and think if some others.

[rockyrocket]

Thanks again Rockyrocket for the detailed instructions. I can't wait to try this although I am not back with the cab for a few weeks .

For other games I guess the key thing they need to be controller friendly. Things controlled by one or two buttons should work. How about the Tinywings type games such as Dragon Fly Free or Ski Stickman, where you use one button with a long press making a difference to the control of the player. Will try and think if some others.

Just tried both those games on my nexus 5 and they are both FUN!

Think we need to stick to portrait mode enabled games though, just had a quick google and found this discusion on portrait games.

On a side note I am not a fanboy but have both a nexus 5 and a nexus 7, however do not think I will go for the new nexus 6.

After all who wants to buy something that only lives a few years and gets tracked down by bladerunners?.

[slydog43]

anyone tried Pinball Arcade with bluestacks on a cab?

[rockyrocket]

anyone tried Pinball Arcade with bluestacks on a cab?

Yes, it works but not as good as the native pc build at all.

The same applies to zen pinballHD/FX2.

[rockyrocket]

Just as a fun little addition to this thread, how about a pincab running on android ..........

[randr]

Bumping this thread its very neat and wondering if anyone has other ideas of android games that work good with basic left right flipper controls? a driving game? angry birds? like the idea of expanding the cab to some of these really great time killer games for mobile devices

[rockyrocket]

I do have a wish list of two games that are causing problems to set up....

The first is Gyro as I can not seem to set the controls up usefully.

The second is Pinball Yeah! or specifically the VR table as its almost a cross between marble madness and pinball.

The problem with this is that in native android I need to use a third party app to force it into portrait, and so far this will not work in bluestacks .

So if any of ya fancy a challenge have a crack at those two .

Thinking a bit more about controls it may be worth thinking about bluestacks native XB360 controller support?.

[rockyrocket]

Ps Randr you know that just by adding Flappy bird to your cab you have increased its value a fair bit judging by what phones with it on are going for lately .

[randr]

Ha! well I do have angry birds working but I just use the mouse on glass. not ideal but love the idea of expanding the cab to other platforms

[rockyrocket]

Ha! well I do have angry birds working but I just use the mouse on glass. not ideal but love the idea of expanding the cab to other platforms

The cfg that I am using for Flappybird is attached, I think it uses either my right flipper or right magnasave button so may work for you depending on your key definitions .

flappybird.7z

[randr]

flappy bird i got working no problem. Now rob-o-bot and others i can set flippers but plunger only works with mouse hold and pull. should be able to assign to plunger z-axis...still working on that.

[rockyrocket]

I have the Z axis mapped to arrow down with Xpadder that is the key Rob-O-Bot uses for plunger.

But to get the other tables to work then ended up mapping Arrow down to an AHK hotkey that drags the mouse on screen to pull the plunger.

This works but does not look too good when the cursor appears, and is then a shame when Rob-O-Bot`s native support is ignored and said cursor shows .

I think it is maybe worth just not using the Mousclickdrag part of the script - and having Rob-O-Bot as it should be, as the other pin games are not nearly as good IMHO?..

EDIT, just realized you can just map the MouseClickdrag part of the script to whatever your launch ball button is if you have one, and then have Z axis as "down" to have the best of both worlds.

[rockyrocket]

Just had a bit of a play adding some more games to this and have found three that work well using just the flippers.

gravitrex is possibly the most fun of the three with great physics.

Timberman is a very simple game that`s damn hard to master, at least for me.

Swing Copters is the latest game from the flappy birds guy and installs but just would not start, so Swing Stars is used instead.

Two games that I really wanted on the cab Sky Force and Unpossible will not work, but are still fun on my tablet.

Abyss Attack does work well but like a lot of android apps is very much in app purchase focused.

Still want to look some more for good games but so far this is all that I have found.

[randr]

Very cool will check these out

[randr]

Can you share input configs for these?

[rockyrocket]

Can you share input configs for these?

Sure will, so things seem to work a bit better if you remap your flipper keys to left and right globally for bluestacks so I have changed the AHK wrapper a bit....

#NoEnvCoordMode, Mouse, WindowDetectHiddenWindows On#WinActivateForceRun, "C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate\iRotate.exe" /rotate=90Process, Wait, HD-Frontend.exeWinWait,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dWinActivate,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dWinWaitActive,ahk_class WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.33c0d9dProcess, WaitClose, HD-Frontend.exeRun, "C:\Program Files (x86)\iRotate\iRotate.exe" /rotate=0ExitAppE::Run, "C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks\HD-Quit.exe"                ;Exit KeyLShift::Left                                                           ;Left Flipper keyRShift::Right                                                          ;Right Flipper key;]::Up;8::Down                                                                                                              f::MouseClickDrag, L, 914, 1431, 937, 1832, 20                         ;Launch Ball key

This also allows you to use your plunger with Rob-O-Bot if mapped to "Down" with Xpadder.

One thing I neglected to say before is that Set orientation is used to force any landscape apps into portrait.

Enclosed are the control cfg`s I use, along with my XML and script including settings for Vector Swarm.

If anyone could use the artwork to go with this I will add it to the FTP.

Oh and any other game suggestions are most welcome .

Blue stacks.7z