Capcom emulation is already a reality

[Kemetman72]

To all PA fans. The very man who writes the emualator for FS figured out Capcom emulation a long while back. I know because I was there when it happened. It was quite exciting to see brand new emualtion come forth. I know this may sound dumb, but does Capcom themselves still hold the rights to the few pins they made or did some other company pick up those rights? I know a lot of people comapred Pinball Magic to Theater of Magic and called it a poor man's clone of it. I never got to see one fullu animated. But all of their pins have veen recreated. King Pin is interesting as well as Big Bang Bar. Even Breakshot blended retro with new for a pool table theme. The problem may lie in finding a wholle machine. In my opinion their tables are definitely worth preserving. Also I know Whitestar and SAM emualtion have been successfully emulated.
One ? I have is will we ever see a playboy table? If you know your pin history there are three. The old Bally one wouldn't be a problem. DE's 35th anniversary pin isn't that racy. Stern's might be. I a pretty sure we are all adullts here or a vast majority of us are. Do we need to be held back by an E rating all the time? So that would definitely leave the Sporanos pin out. Actually the swearing gets old and they layout isn't the greatest. Just food for thought. I like South Park it brings a smile to my face. Would it be so wrong to bring this to TPA? Obviously the rom that contained one instance of swearing would not be used. IDK just food for thought/.
Also thanks FS one can never have too many balls. I still think avatars for systems that support it would be a good idea as it would expose other friends to TPA. Have a good one everybody!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Capcom emulation is a reality on PCs, since they can throw vast amounts of memory and CPU horsepower at the problem. It's emulating on an older iOS or Android device that is the challenge.

 

[PiN WiZ]

You are correct, Capcom emulation is already a reality on PC, but you need to keep in mind that FarSight needs to get the MPUs emulated and optimized on Android, iOS, OSX, PS3, PS Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360 and any other platform they decide to support in the near future. The reason why you haven't seen Tee'd Off or Victory as of yet is because they are still trying to get the Gottlieb MPUs emulated and optimized for all their supported platforms. Just because an MPU has been emulated on PC doesn't automatically mean it works on every other platform.

 

[karl]

When it comes to who holds the rights. I think capcom sold all their pinball assets to Gene Cunningham and if I remember correctly, FS has already been in contact with him and things are looking good in that department. So whenever FS have the time to perfect the emulation, Capcom tables will probably come. Personally, I would like to see every Capcom ever built show up in TPA. Never tried them in real life but they all look interesting. Maybe next year if we're lucky.

 

[Nightwing]

When it comes to who holds the rights. I think capcom sold all their pinball assets to Gene Cunningham and if I remember correctly, FS has already been in contact with him and things are looking good in that department. So whenever FS have the time to perfect the emulation, Capcom tables will probably come. Personally, I would like to see every Capcom ever built show up in TPA. Never tried them in real life but they all look interesting. Maybe next year if we're lucky.

I agree - their tables do look interesting! I don't know about having them all in TPA,but having a few tables for sure I would go for.

 

[Kolchak357]

Kingpin, Big Bang Bar, and Pinball Magic are the only Capcom pins I'm familiar with. Pinball Magic is the only one I've ever played. Only played it once but I recall liking it.
Do all the Capcom pins have the same type of rom? In other words, if you can rom emulate one of their pins then can you do them all?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

There is only the one MPU, the Capcom # A0015405.

 

[Kolchak357]

Thanks Sean. Capcom wasn't around for very long. I assumed it was one but wanted to make sure.

 

[Bowflex]

On the bright side the fact that it is emulated for PC is a good thing as it shows that there is already familiar with having it successfully work at all. At least they won't be starting from scratch. I would love the opportunity to play their tables. I've heard that most are above average and they are extremely rare. Only a couple BBB's out in the wild and the other games are seldom seen.

 

[Rudy Yagov]

On the bright side the fact that it is emulated for PC is a good thing as it shows that there is already familiar with having it successfully work at all. At least they won't be starting from scratch. I would love the opportunity to play their tables. I've heard that most are above average and they are extremely rare. Only a couple BBB's out in the wild and the other games are seldom seen.

Breakshot, Airborne, and Pinball Magic all had a production of over 1000, so they're not as rare as BBB. Kingpin is the rarest game they made at only 9 units. It's also their best in my opinion. I luckily got a chance to play it at the museum in DC before it closed.

 

[thetrout]

Capcom is exciting because, while they didn't end up making many tables, ALL of them were fun and worth playing. My friend actually owned a Pinball Magic and we played the crap out of it.

 

[superballs]

Funny that Street Fighter 2 wasn't a Capcom machine.

From what I've seen they did have an exceptional pinball division while it lasted. Would be nice to see this emulation optimized.

 

[spoonman]

You are correct, Capcom emulation is already a reality on PC, but you need to keep in mind that FarSight needs to get the MPUs emulated and optimized on Android, iOS, OSX, PS3, PS Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360 and any other platform they decide to support in the near future. The reason why you haven't seen Tee'd Off or Victory as of yet is because they are still trying to get the Gottlieb MPUs emulated and optimized for all their supported platforms. Just because an MPU has been emulated on PC doesn't automatically mean it works on every other platform.

Sadly it's another example of the less powerful devices, namely iOS/Android, keeping the PS3 & PS Vita back.

I think Farsight should release some tables that start out on the PS4/PS3/PC/Vita/Xbox One and then eventually ported to other devices as they are able to
optimize them.

 

[netizen]

Sadly it's another example of the less powerful devices, namely iOS/Android, keeping the PS3 & PS Vita back.

I think Farsight should release some tables that start out on the PS4/PS3/PC/Vita/Xbox One and then eventually ported to other devices as they are able to
optimize them.

Currently tables start out on XBOX, and are ported from there.
Once the PC version is up and running, the development will transfer to it, likely.

The mobile versions are not holding things back, as they do not have features the consoles do, nor will they be optimized to have the same lighting effects based on existing hardware. This platform envy discussion is as pointless as the Pre-Rendered vs Realtime arguments.

preference are based on how players play. Each platform has its pros and cons.

 

[Mark W**a]

Capcom emulation is a reality on PCs, since they can throw vast amounts of memory and CPU horsepower at the problem. It's emulating on an older iOS or Android device that is the challenge.

Mobile does Ripley's BION just fine. And that's a 2000's era pin. So I don't think 1996 Dotmation tech should be an issue whatsoever.

Bobby is on record saying he wants to do Big Bang Bar in the future. I totally support this! BBB would make an absolutely amazing addition to the Pinball Arcade. To be quite honest, I think it's the coolest looking pinball machine I have ever seen... by far if I might add. Ever. In the history of mankind. I stand by that statement. The tube dancer looks incredible, I was literally floored the first time I saw that. The colors, the blacklight, the sense of humor, the music. Not to mention rarity. Sorry can't gush enough about that table.

Other Capcom games like Kingpin and the retro-modern (forget the name) would also make great additions. Personally I am more interested in the 3 Capcom tables than anything from Data East or Sega.

 

[Mark W**a]

Sadly it's another example of the less powerful devices, namely iOS/Android, keeping the PS3 & PS Vita back.

I think Farsight should release some tables that start out on the PS4/PS3/PC/Vita/Xbox One and then eventually ported to other devices as they are able to
optimize them.

Uh, what? The Vita version is horrible and the PS3 is an ancient 7 year old console.

The only stuff I see not working on mobile is a really modern Stern. I don't know exactly if that's true, but I just can't imagine late 2000's tech being easily emulated on mobile.

Then there's the Pin 2000 games. Personally, I want to see Revenge from Mars as a PS4/Xbox One/PC exclusive. It would give people incentive to upgrade. Just like how Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, and Gofers were PS3/360 exclusives back in the day. Star Wars Episode 1 isn't worth the cost of license.

 

[Rudy Yagov]

Uh, what? The Vita version is horrible and the PS3 is an ancient 7 year old console.

The only stuff I see not working on mobile is a really modern Stern. I don't know exactly if that's true, but I just can't imagine late 2000's tech being easily emulated on mobile.

Then there's the Pin 2000 games. Personally, I want to see Revenge from Mars as a PS4/Xbox One/PC exclusive. It would give people incentive to upgrade. Just like how Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, and Gofers were PS3/360 exclusives back in the day. Star Wars Episode 1 isn't worth the cost of license.

The Vita version is only "horrible" because they slap it together without testing.

The launch tables were all fine, but after that, things went downhill.

 

[The loafer]

Capcom emulation: Not 100% certain here but although the Farsight programmer emulated it on the PC, I don't think they are using any pinmame code, so essentially, don't they have to re-invent the wheel for each system they emulate?

 

[LanceBoyle]

I'd definitely love to see some Capcom tables in there, as they look quite cool. Breakshot does sound like a modern-ish version of Big Shot, and that's awesome in my book. I'd also love to see Flipper Football if only because of the "adult mode" and all its swearing (through Pro Mode, of course)

As for the possibility of Playboy, I remember on the thread of one of the recent Bobby King interviews it mentioned that he said that they might do a separate thing called "Pinball After Dark" for the not so family-friendly tables. And I doubt they'd be able to get even the Playboy table by Bally on a E10+ title, because the license itself might not be exactly suitable for a game of that rating. Probably the only one they'd be able to get on TPA is the unrelated one by Gottlieb that was on the first PHOF collection.

...then again TPA's got two Elvira tables, so... who knows, really?

 

[Worf]

There's a ton of emulation already a reality - the guy who worked on PinMAME works for Farsight. He moved to Farsight when he retired from PinMAME development to work " on a secret project" (that turned out to be PHoF). And PinMAME worked on far weaker systems back in the days than what we have today.

And no, the reason why he retired from PinMAME was so he wouldn't contaminate the Farsight codebase with MAME-licensed code. That's why although he basically got every pinball MPU emulated on PinMAME, TPA only emulates WPC at the moment (and only the MPU - DCS is not emulated).