ios users checkout this great idea for an ipad pinball cabinet.

[ramone12781]

ion audio are the people that brought the iCade from an April Fools Day joke to a Reality. Lets blow up this forum to show them that there is a fanbase for this so the iCade Pinball Cabinet may become a great accessory for iPad owners and a great compliment for the Pinball Arcade Series on the ios platform!

After clicking the link make sure to click the "+1" at the top of the thread to give this idea a vote and to make the thread more visible to others

http://community.ionaudio.com/ion_a...r_ipad_that_works_with_the_pinball_arcade_app

 

[Jeff Strong]

Very nice. I posted there and hit the +1.

 

[dtown8532]

I don't own an ipad but if something was made that resembled that one with the chrome legs and backglass display I'd SERIOUSLY consider selling the ipod and getting an ipad.

 

[stef5967]

It's good for me + 1 !!

 

[Heretic]

Comment removed by admin

Good thing were here to play pinball then isnt it?

*pats on head*

 

[Chris Dunman]

I think Heretic speaks for us all there.... Besides I don't know girls where you get 3 goes for a quid....

 

[night]

I think Heretic speaks for us all there.... Besides I don't know girls where you get 3 goes for a quid....

I know this girl who likes multi balls.

 

[Stormchild]

This looks like a really cool idea. I just posted a ridiculously long bunch of comments on that page, which I'll paste here for anyone who's interested in this idea.

--


This is a great idea. However, there are a lot of details that need to be addressed.

-- Plunger/launch button --

A real plunger would be great, however, not all tables have one. Tables such as Medieval Madness and Monster Bash have a launch button instead; unfortunately that button is also occasionally used during play (e.g. to use troll bombs in MM), and in those situations the plunger would not be a usable replacement for the button.

On the other hand, a button *instead* of a plunger would defeat most of the purpose of having a hardware control at all, since the main benefit of a real plunger isn't merely to launch balls, but to have control over how far back you pull it, and make skill shots (most tables have this feature).

I think it would have to have both a button *and* a plunger to accomodate all types of tables.

One edge case I can think of: Funhouse actually has *two* plungers, but you never need both of them at the same time, so you could just use the same plunger when the ball drops into the left launch lane (aka the stairs).

-- Nudging --

Nudge buttons would be nice, I guess, but IMO they'd have to be different than the regular flipper buttons. Nudging on a real table isn't an all-or-nothing proposition; there are different degrees of force with which one bumps the sides of the table, depending on how much you need to alter the ball's path, and also how sensitive a given table's tilt sensor is (this is configurable; tables are often set more sensitive for tournament play).

So if there are nudge buttons would have to be pressure sensitive, and therefore they'd need some resistance (something you don't want on flipper buttons), or you'll have no ability to control how "hard" you're bumping the table.

That said, I don't think any kind of buttons are an ideal solution to this problem. What I'd suggest is Pinball Arcade (and any other pinball apps that intend to support advanced techniques) should have a greater range of sensitivity to the iPad accelerometer, allowing relatively gentle taps to nudge the table just slightly, and harder ones for larger movements. This would eliminate any need for nudge buttons; you could tap the cabinet just like a real one, and leave it up to the iPad accelerometer to detect it.

One big benefit of doing it this way (besides reducing the complexity of the cabinet) is that you'd be able to do slap saves, wherein you slap one of the flipper buttons to trigger both the flipper and a nudge at exactly the same time. I think this would be very difficult to do if you had to hit both a flipper button and a pressure-sensitive nudge button at the same time.

Then there's the matter of nudging the table *forward*, which Pinball Arcade doesn't support at all, yet, but could definitely be enabled if the iPad was in a cabinet that keeps it relatively stable when you aren't bumping it on purpose. Forward nudges are really critical for saving balls that are bouncing lightly off the post between an inlane and outlane, not to mention saves on center posts (we don't have any of those in Pinball Arcade yet, but it's only a matter of time).

-- Built-in charger --

Not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere already, but I think there either needs to be a built-in dock connector and AC plugin that charges the iPad while it's in the cabinet, or it at least needs to allow enough space to mount it in the cabinet with your own charging cable attached. Keep in mind, these cables are quite short, so you'd pretty much have to have the table right in front of an AC outlet, or it won't reach. Thus I think it's better if the cabinet has its own power cable, and a dock connector.

-- DMDs / scoreboard HUD --

The idea of having a separate display for the DMD or alphanumeric scoreboard is an interesting one. I can think of a couple different approaches, each with its own pros/cons.

Using an iPhone (or Android phone) could definitely work. The question is, how do you mount the phone in a way that keeps it upright and holds it in place when you nudge the cabinet? Can't have it falling onto the iPad while you're playing. Obviously it can't be designed specifically for the iPhone 4/4S, since you wouldn't be able to use any other kind of phone (it's not just Android phones that wouldn't fit, but any newer iPhones that might have a different physical shape, or even a 4/4S that's in a case). And what if you need to answer a call, email, or text message while the phone's in the cabinet?

IMO, the phone idea is a little sketchy for all of the above reasons, but if someone can think of an elegant solution to all those potential problems, by all means.

The other option is to have a built-in display in the cabinet itself. I think this would significantly increase the cost and complexity of building these things, and also limit the potential market by making them too expensive for a lot of people. Then there's the matter of getting a signal to the display. You could use the dock connector, but it could get tricky to support both video output and charging through a single port.

As for the smartphone idea, I think the right way to do that would be to build companion apps that run on iPhone/Android, so you only need to send tiny bits of data and let the phone render the actual video. But even then, there are potential latency problems that would throw off things like timed modes, hurry ups, and so on.

Honestly, I think I would just forget about this idea and leave the HUD on the iPad display. There are just too many problems to be solved to get a second display running in sync with the game.

-- Final thoughts --

If this cabinet idea is done right, it could transform an iPad + Pinball Arcade into a very realistic experience that allows for a much more advanced level of skill. It could (and should) support other pinball apps as well, but since Pinball Arcade is by far the most realistic and demanding pinball sim, any cabinet that clears that high bar ought to be more than adequate for any other company's pinball games.

 

[Stormchild]

Oh yeah…I completely forgot about audio. Speakers would be awesome.

 

[mmmagnetic]

I'm not sure if all this effort is worth it if you end up with a cabinet that you have to hunch over. I usually hold my iPad relatively close to my face, and even sitting at a desk things might get pretty tiny.

I'd love having physical, real flipper buttons though! I just don't want this thing to be unreasonably expensive. As a quaint little gadget it certainly is very cool! A charger, for instance, is not really useful in my opinion, the iPad has an incredibly strong battery and I'm sure most users won't keep the iPad in the cabinet exclusively anyway - and such a charger would only make the price go up.

The DMD idea, however, is really sweet

 

[Sean]

I plan on getting an iCade to play Atari Greatest Hits and Namco arcade games (Midway, well, it would be nice if they put some effort into properly emulating the games like Atari and Namco did). Although I like the idea of one for pinball, it seems like it could get pretty complicated with talk of a mechanical plunger and all.

I do think the idea has merit, but probably a bit simpler, like flipper buttons, a start button and a plunger button for use with those games that have multi-purpose buttons (I had no clue why the Medieval Madness one was duplicated in the top corner and I've actually played that game in real life!), but I'd leave out some kind of analogue plunger or coin slot and figure a lot of it will be done on the screen as usual.

I do think that some kind of power pass-through is a good idea; I'm a bit surprised the iCade is apparently battery-operated?

 

[Chris Dunman]

The iCade is powered as the connection is Bluetooth. Atari and midway work very well, pacman especially. Very good feel to it as well. Good joystick rather than a flimsy affair you might have thought.

Once in place the power to the iPad itself is run though the iCade

 

[Tony C]

The launch button at the top of the screen in MM is there because you use it to release troll bombs at times when the plunger is technically inactive.

The plunger could very well double as a button if it was set up to hit a switch when it was pressed IN as well as operate a variable input when it is pulled out.

This idea is pretty neat, but totally eliminates the portability aspect of the iPad IMHO.

 

[Jeff Strong]

This idea is pretty neat, but totally eliminates the portability aspect of the iPad IMHO.

Well, it's not like you would leave your iPad in that thing at all times, unless all you ever did with it is play pinball, that is

 

[Tony C]

True, but I play at my desk or on the couch mostly. Neither of those has a convenient place to put a mini table down. Still, there is a market for it just like there is on for iCade.

 

[Rooter]

Neat idea, but not convenient, which is why I play on the iPad. I'll stick to my life size pinball cabinet, if the PC version even comes out.

 

[ramone12781]

You gotta look at this idea as more of a Hobbiest or conversation piece in your Man Cave. Of course it's not gonna be meant for mobile/on the go or be convenient by any means. But its moreless a cool collectable iPad accessory.

 

[Sean]

The launch button at the top of the screen in MM is there because you use it to release troll bombs at times when the plunger is technically inactive.

The plunger could very well double as a button if it was set up to hit a switch when it was pressed IN as well as operate a variable input when it is pulled out.

I haven't read the rules for most of the tables, so I haven't a clue what "troll bombs" are!

I can see how a multi-purpose plunger control could work, but that's the kind of specialist control that would likely push the price of a proposed Pinball iCade beyond the point where it would have broader appeal I expect. If you look at the iCade presently I'm sure other than the casing part, you're talking mass-market components that are easily obtained. If they have to include a custom controller part, I think that would present too much of a financial risk for something with such a limited target market to begin with; especially when the touchscreen does the job so well.

 

[BlindSpider11]

Liked it...

 

[Jeff Strong]

You gotta look at this idea as more of a Hobbiest or conversation piece in your Man Cave. Of course it's not gonna be meant for mobile/on the go or be convenient by any means. But its moreless a cool collectable iPad accessory.

Exactly.......