Making a Pinball Emulating PC

[FullTilt]

Hey everyone, long time lurker who just recently decided to start adding to this wonderful community. So far I have been really happy with how welcoming you all are to new users

I was just playing the table of the month, and was thinking how cool it would be if there was some sort of Pinball machine that had a PC inside it to emulate all of these cool tables. So I think I will try and build one. The planning stage is going alright, I will be making a cabinet so that the sizing fits whatever I decide to put in it. I am thinking that I can hook some buttons up to a controller that will be glued/soldered under the machine so you can use actual flipper buttons, and I am working on something similar for the plunger. Right now the only thing I am unsure of is the screen. I though of getting a rather large LED screen to install where the game would be, and a small one to install on the face of the cabinet just in case of issues.

What do you all think of my idea? Obviously it is not fully fleshed out, I am trying to finish the planning so I can budget accordingly. I will be using a fairly budget PC, making sure that it can show the tables in good quality and that will be about it. Do any of you have ideas for screens that can be used, either in the bottom or the face? I was thinking that a flat screen TV might work best for the table, but I thought here must be somewhere I can get LED screens that are just the screen and the board/chips to run it. Any advice would be much appreciated

After talking with some users here and some users on the boards linked, I have went ahead and bought some cheap LED TV's so that I have a screen to base the cabinet around, as I will be making my own. I wanted to get a cheap one in case I broke it doing something stupid., so I found some cheap LED tv's that I am going to be using. So far I have hooked them up to my computer and played a couple different tables on them just sitting on the floor, but they may need more playing I mean testing

 

[Heretic]

Do you mean a vpin? I'm unsure how familiar you are with them but they are also a costly hobby do you have ideas on cheaper better faster?

If you've some ideas don't get bogged down by what's been before, hash out a pro type and they will come......ermmmm

Edit - some of our members are huge vpin nuts and somewhat sane so I'm sure they will be happy to answer your questions and debate your ideas, it filters out some of the more militant crazies were all just nuts here

 

[Ruebsy]

This was a dead and parted out Stern Flight 2000. Still have to build my back box and made use of a full 3rd screen for my dmd and I have topper images in it now.

This is my 3rd build. Just getting started. I'd recommend you look at some of the sites us "sane" vpin nuts use.
vpforums.com
Vpuniverse.com
Vpinball.com

There's a legendary man who created a mod to allow camera control and cabinet support for the PC version of pinball arcade. Selecting a cabinet size will dictate the lower playfeild size. Most widebody cabs you can get a 43" or 46" with some routing to fit. I'd recommend ultimarc.com and the ipac 2 for a USB button encoder.

Warning! This is a rabbit hole!!! You will lose your mind with all that can be done!!!!!


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[Ruebsy]

Here's a better shot of he dmd/topper video as it looks now. Meant to also suggest looking into a program called pinballx, it's a way to pick and serve up tables while giving you plenty of eye candy before deciding which to launch. It supports pinball arcade, pinball fx2, visual pinball, future pinball and mame, and much more.


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[EldarOfSuburbia]

You may want to look at this thread:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ll-Cabinet?highlight=building+virtual+cabinet

 

[JPRocks17]

Cool


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[FullTilt]

Wow, I didn't think there was going to be such a huge following for this idea. It seems most of the things I thought were cool and original have already been done, but I can always try and improve

Ruebsy, it is crazy that you have been on her for almost five months and these replies are your first, I feel honored. Your setup looks sick BTW, and cheers on the websites. You da real MVP.

I will definitely be reading through that post you linked Eldar, it seems like a perfect little walkthorugh of the what you will endure in this process. I hope I am ready.

Thanks again guys, you were all very helpful.

 

[shutyertrap]

On top of people building their own cab, there are also professionally built cabinets out there. They are expensive, but you might look them up to see what ideas you can borrow for your own.

http://virtuapin.net/

https://virtualpinball.com/
VPCabs has an actual license agreement with Zen for Pinball FX2. Makes standup cabs too for those wanting a multi arcade experience.

https://www.arcooda.com/our-machines/arcooda-video-pinball/
Not out yet, but Arcooda has a license for The Pinball Arcade. They are working with FarSight to have a custom touchscreen interface as well as custom table view, DMD, and backglass exclusive to them.

A lot of these companies offer the option of having solenoid coils, plungers, tilt sensors, robust speakers, actual DMD, and more.

 

[FullTilt]

On top of people building their own cab, there are also professionally built cabinets out there. They are expensive, but you might look them up to see what ideas you can borrow for your own.

http://virtuapin.net/

https://virtualpinball.com/
VPCabs has an actual license agreement with Zen for Pinball FX2. Makes standup cabs too for those wanting a multi arcade experience.

https://www.arcooda.com/our-machines/arcooda-video-pinball/
Not out yet, but Arcooda has a license for The Pinball Arcade. They are working with FarSight to have a custom touchscreen interface as well as custom table view, DMD, and backglass exclusive to them.

A lot of these companies offer the option of having solenoid coils, plungers, tilt sensors, robust speakers, actual DMD, and more.

Oh my god this is amazing. I am going to be studying these designs all weekend, I worked as a finishing carpenter for 5 years and ran a robotics club at the same time so I think this will be difficult and very long/expensive project to do, but one worth the adventure It is good to know there are some options out there as well if I do get stuck though! Cheers mate!

 

[Heretic]

It's like we introduced him to crack! Shame on you all!

 

[shutyertrap]

Oh my god this is amazing. I am going to be studying these designs all weekend, I worked as a finishing carpenter for 5 years and ran a robotics club at the same time so I think this will be difficult and very long/expensive project to do, but one worth the adventure It is good to know there are some options out there as well if I do get stuck though! Cheers mate!

If you want to hear more about VPCabs, we interviewed the owner, Brad Baker, in our podcast and he talks a bunch about his design decisions.

http://blahcadepinball.com/2016/05/24/Episode-58-Virtual-Pinball-For-Real-or-V-P-Cabs-Interview.html

 

[Ruebsy]

As I mentioned this is one hell of a rabbit hole LOL.

I've been lurking in the PBA forums for quite some time but am fairly active on the other sites boards. I haven't really posted much here as far sight seems to always drop the ball on their PC fans not adding native cab support and clunky menus, but I've been a fan since way back when they first released rather quietly on the Nintendo Wii. After that I went out and bought my fav pin from when I was growing up which is BK2K. I also grabbed a bram stokers Dracula but couldn't stop there and decided that virtual was a fun way to play many, many more tables.
I'd highly recommend you look at Visual Pinball especially with version 10...it truly gives pinball arcade a run for its money and is free! It takes some learning of the software but is a fun hobby/project.
As of late I've been enthralled in loading color DMDs and always tweaking the media that is displayed in pinballX. Couple that with an LEDWIZ and playing with LEDs to accent my cab it's been so much but also fun.(hard work too, lots of failing and reinstalling things.)


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[luxeder]

I don't think the tables currently existing for Visual Pinball can stand up to the quality of the Pinball Arcade ones. If I ever have enough money to spend, and decide to go for it, I'll build my virtual cabinet with PBA + freecamera mod, that's for sure. Unless the quality of the community created tables overcome PBA over time.

 

[Ruebsy]

I don't think the tables currently existing for Visual Pinball can stand up to the quality of the Pinball Arcade ones. If I ever have enough money to spend, and decide to go for it, I'll build my virtual cabinet with PBA + freecamera mod, that's for sure. Unless the quality of the community created tables overcome PBA over time.

I'm going to assume you haven't yet used VPX tables yet then.
You're missing out!
I felt the same way til that version and tables were released. I'd even say that many are better. That said there's also more of them and that price point is hard to bargain with.

Metallica
The Walking Dead
Star Trek LE
Avengers
Spider Man VE
Iron Man VE
Just a small handful of the vpx tables that are out there that run extremely well. The new engine for VPX is truly an amazing innovation in virtual pinball. I seriously encourage you to try


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