Pinball Backglass Clock Widget's for Android.

[Baron Rubik]

I've been knocking up some Backglass Widget's for Android recently, and thought I'd share the files if anyone wants to try them out.
Started with Haunted House, then Black Knight, and High Speed in eager anticipation.

All widget's have a hidden TPA start button. For Black Knight and Haunted House, touch the game title text, for High speed touch the car.
Other hidden starts are in there... touch the clock for clock/alarm/stopwatch. Touch the date for calendar. Touch the weather BBC weather. Tasks fires tasks https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.teamtasks.tasks.paid. Maps fires Google maps.

To use these you'll need to install Zooper Pro Widget from the link below.

Zooper widget pro - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.zooper.zwpro

Run Zooper and it should create the following location on your device.

Zooper widget template location - /mnt/sdcard/ZooperWidget/

===========================
My template files required can be downloaded from here...

Black Knight - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ol2f2k65u4qdw7t/Black-Knight.zw

Haunted House - https://www.dropbox.com/s/ske04qhkd8xqso9/Haunted house.zw

High Speed - https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3yidk0if465tmn/High-Speed.zw

Pin-Bot - https://www.dropbox.com/s/q50l3l76dnnj4sv/Pin-Bot.zw

Big Shot (4x3 recommended) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5pedl2skm04cse/Big-Shot.zw

Atlantis (4x3 recommended) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/w8phzz9wctm9zdh/Atlantis.zw

Eldorado (4x4recc) https://www.dropbox.com/s/8tergsl6nc471fi/El-Dorado.zw

Viper (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/m00jjtse4i8waui/Viper.zw

Iron Maiden (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/d70u74hzqptqmx5/Iron-Maiden.zw

Space Invaders (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/qqb3ubog8e0mcsw/Space Invaders.zw

Mata-Hari SS (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/b5dsky23blfarss/Mata-hari.zw

Star Gazer (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/sh2r15ichnrwyyn/Star Gazer.zw

Flying Carpet (4x3 recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/7u141qkxzop7pt6/Flying-Carpet.zw

Gottlieb's 'Fire Queen' (recc 4x3) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/df4h821z83zuigo/Fire-Queen.zw
===========================

You'll need a file explorer next - any will do, but a really good free Android file explorer = https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speedsoftware.explorer

Download the Widget file of choice (or all) and move the downloaded file from mnt/sdcard/download/ to /mnt/sdcard/ZooperWidget/

Long click on your homepage to add a widget (or press 'app draw/widget' on Nexus device) to add a widget.
Find the variously sized Zooper widgets and place one of the following recommended sizes depending on widget chosen.
HH & BK - 4x3 widget
HS - 4x2 widget
Drop it onto your page and you'll see an empty transparent widget with 'resize or tap to start'.
Tap the empty widget to choose a template file.
Pick SD card 'templates stored on sd card' and you will be asked which widget to load into this blank file.

Wait about 10secs and done.
Feel free to mod, chop, butcher and do what you want with them.

 

[neilpinbot]

Smart, I will try this out later. May I request a Pin*Bot widget

 

[Baron Rubik]

Smart, I will try this out later. May I request a Pin*Bot widget

No worries - that's the next one.

 

[neilpinbot]

I'm using the free version of Zooper and I think I have correctly moved your downloads in to the Zooper widget folder. But I seem to be unable to select them. Only some pre installed widgets show up and I can't seem to be able to access the install from SD card location that you mention. I think I might need to upgrade to pro version or I'm missing some thing. I wonder if any one else can get it working in the free version.

 

[Baron Rubik]

I'm using the free version of Zooper and I think I have correctly moved your downloads in to the Zooper widget folder. But I seem to be unable to select them. Only some pre installed widgets show up and I can't seem to be able to access the install from SD card location that you mention. I think I might need to upgrade to pro version or I'm missing some thing. I wonder if any one else can get it working in the free version.

Yeah - you're right. I've just installed free version and you can only install custom templates with the Pro.
Sorry guys - It's pro or No.

I even searched the root directory's for the allowed free templates to see if adding them there would bypass the system, but it's been thought of.

I'll amend the op to reflect Pro only.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Just found a suitable Pinbot Backglass ready for editing.

Been using this site for some of the resource files https://www.mediafire.com/folder/171k6jbvc7v40/backglasses

 

[neilpinbot]

Thanks I will buy the pro version later today. Thank you for sharing and for looking at doing PinBot.

 

[Baron Rubik]

May I request a Pin*Bot widget

Pin-Bot's Done!

Template can be downloaded from here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/q50l3l76dnnj4sv/Pin-Bot.zw

Works best as 4x3 ratio widget (which can be re-sized).
Touch Pin-Bot's visor to start TPA.
Touch clock to start clock.
Below clock is Sunrise - Sunset times.
Touch date to start calendar.
Touch weather icon which changes live, to start BBC weather app (if installed).
Touch maps for Google Maps (if installed).
Tasks fires Tasks (if installed - link in OP).

Good suggestion - looks nice.
Might try a DMD next.

 

[neilpinbot]

Thanks Baron. I got the pro version and it's all working great, thank you for the Pin*Bot widget. I will probably have a go at making one when I get some time.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Thanks Baron. I got the pro version and it's all working great, thank you for the Pin*Bot widget. I will probably have a go at making one when I get some time.

You're welcome - give us a shout if you need any help.
There's a really great forum & community for Zooper.

 

[neilpinbot]

A DMD widget sounds like a great idea. After a lot of swopping and messing I'm preferring the HH widget as my old eye's find it easier to see the time and other info

 

[Baron Rubik]

I've got to agree that middle age isn't doing much for me either.

I actually physically have quite a few old clocks I've collected, one of which I digitized through Zooper.
National Time recorder clock - https://www.dropbox.com/s/b68kk58p4tbl2o6/Time-Recorder1.zw

Nice and easy to see the time on this one.

 

[neilpinbot]

Yep even I can see the that.

 

[Xanija]

Thanks Baron, great idea

 

[Baron Rubik]

New widget's...
After trying a DMD out, and Neil's comment on visibility of text and my ageing eyesight, I got to thinking that the older reel type would be a lot more visible, plus I prefer the older art styles personally. But would it be possible?
Took me a while to figure it out but...

Big Shot (4x3 recommended) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5pedl2skm04cse/Big-Shot.zw

Atlantis (4x3 recommended) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/w8phzz9wctm9zdh/Atlantis.zw

The problem with this style is that the system information which is interrogated by the Widget has to be split into individual items so they can be displayed on individual reels.
Also value lengths like battery charge can be either 1 unit if 0-9, 2 units if 10-99, or 3 if 100, and ideally it looks best if controlled to be always 2 reels.

This is the code just to populate the second reel of battery readout...

$#BLEVN#>0&&#BLEVN#<10?#BLEVN#$
;if value less than 10, use value
$#BLEVN#>9&&#BLEVN#<100?[tr=1,100]#BLEVN#[/tr]$
;if value greater than 9 but less than 100, strip preceeding figure from the value
$#BLEVN#=100?9$
;if value 100, force as 99

First one took a while, but now the reel type template is done, I can knock these out quite quickly now.

 

[Kolchak357]

These two new ones are really sharp. Nice work.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Apologies for geeking out on this, but I'm having so much fun with this, I've hardly played TPA for a week.

Really excited to try a new idea out...
The older reel Backglass Widget's shown above are done using the Backglass bitmap as the rearmost object, with fake blank reels on top of that, then a fake number on top of the blank reel.

But for ultimate authenticity, i've found this website.
http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/
On here you can get repro instruction cards but also, manufacturer specific reel cards with carefully recreated fonts.
The Gottlieb one is shown below.

So the new idea is, mod the Backglass with Photoshop to put transparency masks over the reel cutouts and save as a png format.
Cut the reel font above to be a single strip bitmap file, having one bitmap strip per window.
Reel strips are background objects, with Backglass as foremost object, and use Zooper to move the bitmap strips in the y axis only through an (oy) statement conditional to an output figure.

If it works, and it should from initial tests, the genuine font reel strips slide around behind the Backglass windows with only one number per strip being visible, just like the real thing!


Edit - (it's alive)

And done.

Eldorado(4x4recc) - https://www.dropbox.com/s/8tergsl6nc471fi/El-Dorado.zw

Sterns 'Iron Maiden' next I think.

 

[mc_mc]

Nice. Have you thought about creating a graduated background for your numerical images. It makes them look back lit and more realistic. Or even just putting them on a yellowed / cream background to make them look old/antique.

e.g.


This is what some of the Virtual Pinball ball guys do when making their tables+backglasses.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Nice. Have you thought about creating a graduated background for your numerical images. It makes them look back lit and more realistic. Or even just putting them on a yellowed / cream background to make them look old/antique.

This is what some of the Virtual Pinball ball guys do when making their tables+backglasses.

Thanks - yeah, I was playing around yesterday with a transparent overlay (below the art bitmap, but over the reels) which gave a similar effect-ish, basically it made it look like light leakage was coming from below.
Little details make a world of difference.
I'll definitely try editing the reels though see if that's more effective - thanks for the suggestion!

Had another idea yesterday but haven't got it working yet.
It is basically replicating the lighting / black out screening / art layering as in a real back box.
So in layer order I'd have light sources rearmost. Then the light screen layer from the real table.

Then above that - the art bitmap but set about 90 or 95% opacity.

So in theory you fire the lighting, and it looks like the real Backglass light effect.
Two problems I'm still to overcome.
1 - Zooper doesn't satisfactorily Simulate the light source. Looks too dull and flat.
2 - It's a lot of work creating the png transparency layers vs family demands (my 5yr old has an inner ear infection ATM, poor kid).

But I'll keep playing around with it. It would look awesome.

Also created some background wallpapers whilst messing with these...
Did this one yesterday

The Black and white offsets the clock widget's colours really nicely!

 

[Kolchak357]

I'd like to see you take a swing at Surf Champ. It would give you 4 EM scores to play with.
Plus it's a top notch backglass.