The Best Smallville Episode (according to IMDB)

 Maybe you've been looking at the 220 or so episodes of Smallville and thinking to yourself, "You know, that's a mighty big mouthful to chew and swallow," and you'd be right. Now I've watched them all, and while I might be disingenuous and say I remember them, I'd still be lying. 

But if you're anything like me you've been feeling nostalgic these days since the world is falling apart, and you've longed to start adding to a blog you started back in 2008 and stuff like that. Or maybe you've started listening to a Podcast called "Talk Ville" or "Talkville" or something, with Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling, where they swear they will watch EVERY SINGLE EPISODE of Smallville and discuss each one in sequence. 

Now personally, I believe they will crash and burn on Season Five. No way they make it to Season Ten. Hell, Rosenbaum didn't make it to Season Ten when he was BEING PAID! (insert rimshot here).

I mean, sure, Season Five has that awesome Episode Twelve, Reconing, that may very well be the best episode in the whole damn show. In fact, according to IMDB, it IS. That episode has it all, and it's in fact the 100th episode of the series. They obviously wanted it to be special, and they nailed it. So yeah, good on them.

But to get to it you have to survive Episode Five, Thirst. And Thirst is the worst, according to IMDB. I don't want to sway you, but I'll give you a hint at how bad it might be. You see, Lana goes to a sorority and it turns out to be full of VAMPIRE GIRLS, and they turn her into a VAMPIRE! And the lead vampire's name is BUFFY SANDERS!

Meh. I just don't think they have the ability to get through the many difficult hours of horseshit ("Let's take the Prius!") they're gonna have to endure on this journey. 

Good luck boys!

IFPA Pro Tips (From Pinball Arcade Pro Menu) - White Water

Whirlpool Challenge

When you're playing Whirlpool Challenge, get a ball cradled on the Left Flipper, and only use the Right Flippers. Use the Upper Right Flipper to shoot the Whirlpool. After shooting the Whirlpool,the ball will kick out of the Lost Mine. When it kicks out, catch the ball on the Lower Right Flipper. Then shoot the ball up to the top level by shooting the Spine Chiller or No Way Out. This will feed the ball back to the Upper Right Flipper where you can shoot the Whirlpool again.

Rinse, repeat forever.

River Class / Vacation Jackpot

If you're going for the Vacation Jackpot and want to concentrate on advancing the River Class, shoot the ball up to the top level by shooting the Spine Chiller or No Way Out and let the ball come down the Right Inlane to spot a letter in R-I-V-E-R. Remember to make sure the Right Inlane is lit by using the Flippers. 

Rinse, repeat until completed.

Completing Hazards

Some of the Hazards are risky shots. Don't forget that there are some other ways to complete them. When the Bounceback is already lit, completing the bank of Bounceback Spot Targets will complete a flashing Hazard. The most common Disaster Drop Reward is "Spot Hazard". Save this award for when you have to complete risky Hazards such as Boulder Garden. "Spot Hazard" is awarded once the Disaster Drop is completed three times, 12 times, 18 times, 21 times, 24 times, 28 times, 32 times, 37 times, 42 times, 50 times, 80 times, 90 times, and 99 times. If you manage to complete the Disaster Drop 255 times, it will award "Spot Hazard" again. After that, "Spot Hazard" is awarded every time the Disaster Drop is completed.

Gold Rush Multi-Ball

During Gold Rush Multi-Ball, trap a ball on the Left Flipper and then cycle the ball from the Right Flipper into No Way Out for easy millions. 

5X Playfield Whirlpool Award

One of the best Whirlpool Awards is "5X Playfield". This increases most playfield values by five times for 25 seconds. The best strategy is to first lock two balls at No Way Out and then with the third Lock lit, collect the "5X Playfield" Whirlpool Award. Once "5X Playfield" is active, lock the third ball at No Way Out to activate Multi-Ball. Combining Multi-Ball and "5X Playfield" will allow you to score big points. If you're not close to activating Multi-Ball when "5X Playfield" is collected, activating Bigfoot Hotfoot or advancing the Raft are the next best ways to capitalize on the 5X scoring. 

Pro Bio

Pro Tips for White Water provided by Zach Sharpe and Cayle George.
Zach is from Chicago, Illinois and has been playing competitive pinball since 1993. He is the Vice President of the IFPA and is currently ranked 4th in the world on the IFPA's World Pinball Player Rankings.
Cayle is from Seattle, Washington and is currently the #3 ranked player in the world. He was the World Pinball Champion in 2011.

Lesson 8) Installing our first Stern table, Spider-Man!

Introducing, a GREAT pinball table, Spider-Man! Produced in 2007 by Stern, Spider-Man has a ruleset that is just about perfect. You'll have fun on this table, guaranteed! It's #14 on the Pinside.com Top 100 Pinball machines of all time! Here's a link to the webpage on Pinside (https://pinside.com/pinball/archive/spiderman).

So let's swing into action!

To start with, installing a Stern Table, once we've completed Lesson 7, is exactly the same as any other: You have to install both a table and a ROM. The tables can be hard to find, and come in lots of flavors. Our friend JPSalas has a Spider-Man, but it's an ORIGINAL table, and that means it isn't a recreation. I understand it's fun, but I want the actual Stern Spider-Man, like I'd play at an arcade.

The ROM installation is crazy wonky too, and you'll have to break into that table script again!

Don't worry, we'l take it step by step, and we'll get it done.

DOWNLOADING TABLE AND ROM

You won't find this table on vpforums at all. It's exclusive to vpuniverse. If you do a google search on "Spider-Man Stern visual pinball" the first result you'll get is 85vette's "Spiderman Fs (Stern) (2007)" (http://vpuniverse.com/forums/files/file/2743-spiderman-fs-stern-2007-85vett/). Go there now and click download. He has several versions, but select the most normal one. Not the physmod5 one, not the low-res one. Select the normal one, download and extract it, and put it in your Tables folder. You should have the flick of that by now, but if you don't, refer to my prior Lessons for what to do.

Now, for the ROM. This is located at Stern Pinball. Yes, the company's website. You go to Game Code | Stern Pinball (http://www.sternpinball.com/game-code) to get it, and all ROMs for Stern Games. Stern updates their code all the time, and the ROM changes, and that leads to installation problems for digital pinball fans. But in the end it's just some extra work is all. REMEMBER, ROMS DON'T GET EXTRACTED!!!

Okay, you've got what you need once you've downloaded that ROM, but there's a problem. I'm here to fix it for you.

RENAMING THE ROM AND EDITING THE TABLE SCRIPT

Well you didn't think this was going to be easy did you?

Once you've downloaded the ROM from Stern you have a file named "SPD26164.zip". That works great if you have a machine you want to use it in, but it's rubbish for our purposes. We need to rename the ROM to something our table recognizes, and edit the table script to agree with the new name. Let's dig in!

First, move the ROM to your desktop. That will just make the next steps easier to keep track of.

Now, extracted the ROM. Oh, what happened to the ROMS DON'T GET EXTRACTED I yelled at you earlier? I lied. Sometimes they do.

Right-click on the ROM, select 7-Zip, and "Extract files...". Click OK and let it do its stuff. Now, take the file "SPD26164.BIN" from inside the newly created folder and move it to the desktop. You now have your original ROM file, an empty folder named "SPD26164", and the file "SPD26164.BIN" on your desktop. The only one we care about is the "SPD26164.BIN" file, you can throw the other two away.

Now, open visual pinball 9 by double clicking the icon on the desktop, and load the Spider-Man table you installed ("File", "Open...", select the Spider-Man table, click "Open" button).

Open the Script, and do a search for "gamename" like we did in Lesson 6.

You'll see from this that the gamename is "sman_260". But let me tell you something. EVEN THAT IS WRONG.

Found this out by painful trial-and-error (well, mostly error), but Stern has updated the ROM since 85vette built this table. Look at the name of that file we extracted from the Stern ROM, "SPD26164.BIN". Notice the first three numbers? 261? Then look at our gamename, "sman_260". Can you figure out what to do?

We have to change the script gamename to "sman_261". So just click on the "sman_260" in the script and change the "0" into a "1". After you've done that, click on the "Script" menu (at the top of the script editing window) and select "Compile". That means the same thing as save.

Are you still with me? Good. No, you're not DONE yet, but you're getting there.

Now, the ROM has to match the gamename. So we have to create a new ROM, using the file "SPD26164.BIN" we extracted from the ROM we downloaded from Stern.

First, right-click the "SPD26164.BIN" file, and select "Rename". The "SPD26164" part will highlight. Rename it "sman_261". Leave the ".BIN" on the end.

Now, right-click the file, and select the "Send to" option, then "Compressed (zipped) folder". You should get a file called "sman_261.zip" on your desktop. Voila!, your new ROM!!!

Just put that in the roms folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\VPinMame\roms). Now you're almost there. But not quite yet.

THE B2S PROBLEM

I don't know why, but a lot of tables have this issue that will prevent you from running the table. The designer/builder seems to have the MOST COMPLEX setup built-in as the default. We, on the other hand, just want to play a game on our laptop. So...

I don't know what B2S is (actually, I do but I don't care much). All I know is that if I don't change that sucker in the script, I'm gonna have a problem.

The problem is with a line in the table script that says Set Controller = CreateObject("B2S.Server"). We don't want that. The B2S.Server will just make the table not run. We need to change it to Set Controller = CreateObject("VPinMAME.Controller"). So make that change now. I'll wait. Just highlight the B2S.Server  text, and type VPinMAME.Controller instead. Then select "Script" at the top and "Compile" (which is like saving).

CONFIGURING (MAKING IT PRETTY)

Hey, we're done with the hard stuff. Now set the "Colors and Formatting" the way you like it (as described in Lesson 5). These are my settings:

Now select "File" and "Save" and you have your table! It's ready to play! You'll have to put the DMD where you want it (right-click the DMD, select "Show Window Border" and move/resize as you wish.

Okay, you're done. Play a nice relaxing game of pinball. You deserve it.

Under Construction...PLEASE let me know if you find errors or get confused somewhere!

Lesson 7) Getting Ready for Stern!

Stern is making some of the best pinball machines ever made. Chances are, if you play at a local arcade you're playing a Stern machine, most of the time. So, you probably really want to learn the rules and practice on your computer. But alas, Stern is hard to get going in visual pinball. I'm going to walk you through it. Firstly, the prep...

The Stern Problem

Information seem to be rather sparse regarding the special requirements of Stern Pinball tables. When you search the vpforum site, most of the discussion seems to come from some past era when there were no Stern tables. So finding information is difficult.

I found a friend in Pincade on YouTube. He has about 21 videos and seems to be trying to do the same thing I am; help people get up and running with digital pinball. I tried but couldn't find any help getting Stern working on my visual pinball setup until I watched his video, "Visual Pinball Stern SAM table Tutorial". You can watch it if you like, and I suggest it, but I'm going to try to briefly outline what Pincade said.

Now as far as I know, SAM is a chipset used by Stern, and apparently it was a bear to implement on visual pinball. Someone did it finally though, and because of that we can now get Stern SAM tables on our computer. Here's how...

DOWNLOADS

Remember that sign-up I had you do at vpuniverse.com in Lesson 1? Well, it's going to be needed now. Go to this link (http://vpuniverse.com/forums/files/file/2480-vpinmame-sam-for-desktop-cab-pindmd1-pindmd2-pin2dmd/), and make sure you're signed in.

Okay, the choices kind of a crapshoot here, because they refer to pindmd, which I haven't heard of. Is my system pindmd, or non-pindmd? Dunno. But since I didn't intentionally install any pindmd, I'm going to start with "non". Things have changed somewhat since Pincade made his video, so we're a little on our own. At 16:30-ish he encounters a problem of his own, so we know that it's an important distinction.

Download by clicking "Download" and select download for the VPinmame Sam for non-pindmd versions.

INSTALLATION

Okay, extract the file. It's a ".rar" file instead of a ".zip". Doesn't matter. 7-Zip will extract it fine. Right-click on the ".rar" file you just downloaded. Select 7-Zip and then "Extract files...". Click OK and you're done.

Navigate to this new folder and open it. Inside are "bass.dll", "sam.vbs", and "VPinMAME.dll". So, where do they go?

The "sam.vbs" file goes in the "Tables" folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\Tables) inside the "Visual Pinball" folder. The two ".dll" files go inside the "VPinMame" folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\VPinMame) inside the "Visual Pinball" folder. I don't remember, there might be overwriting needed, especially for the "VPinMAME.dll". Don't worry if there is, approve it, because everything is gonna be all right! Better even!

Okay, so now we're all set up, ready for Stern. SO EXCITING! What game should we get first? May I make a suggestion?

Lesson 8) Installing our first Stern table, Spider-Man!

Under Construction...PLEASE let me know if you find errors or get confused somewhere!

Lesson 6) Another "good" table, Star Wars (Data East)

Okay, this is a popular movie, and so I assume it will be a popular pinball. Star Wars was produced by Data East in 1992. Here's a link to the pinside page for the actual pinball machine. Prices for Star Wars (Data East) pinball machines have been rising.

So here you go, Star Wars Visual Pinball!!!

Again, to run almost any pinball table in Visual Pinball you need at least two things. The table file (a .vpt extension), and a ROM file (a .zip extension). This time, the ROM file isn't going to be so easy to find. No problem, just another learning opportunity. Let's dig in!

DOWNLOADING

So, we need the .vpt file, the actual table. We're going to get this from vpforums again, specifically from JPSalas, who does excellent work.

I started by doing a search for "Star Wars Data East" on vpforums download section (you can tell the search which part of vpforums to look in from the search box). I got 22 results, not all of which were tables. So, how did I know which one I wanted?

Firstly, I'm only looking for recreations. So anything that says "Original" is out, because it's probably a fan table. If the search had been for "Star Wars" only, we would have gotten a lot more of these. As it is, the search for "Star Wars Data East" has eliminated original tables.

ALSO, because I'm only looking for tables anything that says "ROM" or "Backglass" or "Video" is out. In addition, I have Visual Pinball 9, so I'm only looking for those versions. That takes me to the JPSalas tables.

Initially, I installed the first one I saw: "Star Wars - Data East VP9 FS 1.0.0". After installation I realized that one had the DMD rotated, and I don't really know how to rotate a DMD (I could find out but I was lazy), so I downloaded and installed "Star Wars - Data East VP9 1.0.0" instead. That one worked fine, and I'm going to walk you through the process of installing it.

INSTALLING TABLE

Download "Star Wars - Data East VP9 1.0.0". Remember, you have to click "Download" then on the disclaimer "Agree & Download" and finally "Download" again. Extract the table, and put it in your tables folder as previously described in Lesson 5.

Now, double-click the visual pinball icon on your desktop to start the program, then click the "File" menu and select "Open...". Select the table you just downloaded and then click "Open".

Now, you have the table loaded. We're going to find out which ROM we need by looking in the script. I'll show you how.

FINDING AND INSTALLING ROM

So you probably noticed that on this table that there isn't a handy link to the ROM on the main page like there was in Rocky and Bullwinkle. Don't know why, but we're gonna find that ROM anyway. 

Now, you already have the table (Star_Wars_VP9_1.0) opened in visual pinball. We're going to click on "Script", one of the six big buttons on the top of the left sidebar. It looks like this:

After the script window opens press the "ctrl" button and then the letter "f" (while you're still holding down the "ctrl" button). That's "Find" in windows. You could also use the Edit menu drop-down menu to select "Find...". The term we're going to look for in the script is "gamename", all one word. That's the name the computer is actually using for the game, and the ROM has to match (have the same name). 

You'll see that the way the script is designed, green lines are comments (ignored by the program). Black or blue lines are executed (seen by the program and run). So, looking at my script, I see there are several "gamename" results, but only "Const cGameName = "stwr_a14" ' version 1.04" is not green. So that's the ROM I'm looking for.

So now, remember when we did the search on vpforums for "Star Wars Data East" and we got 22 results? One of those might be stwr_a14. And it is. The link is here: Star Wars (Data East display Rev.1.04) - ROM - stwr_a14.zip. So you go there and get the download. Remember, DO NOT 7-Zip THIS OR EXTRACT IT IN ANY WAY! It isn't meant to be extracted, you use it just the way it is.

Remember where to put it? In the "roms" folder, inside of the VPinMame folder, inside of the Visual Pinball folder. The address for me looks like this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Pinball\VPinMame\roms.

And that's it. You should be able to start the game now. Set the "Colors and Formatting" the way you like it (as described in Lesson 5).

I changed the "Colors and Formatting" settings on this table. I used:

This made it look more like the real table for me. But feel free to play around with the settings. That's what they're there for!

Enjoy your new pinball table! Next we will install a Stern Pinball table. It's pretty tricky.

Lesson 7) Getting Ready for Stern!

Under Construction...PLEASE let me know if you find errors or get confused somewhere!

Lesson 5) Your first "good" table, Rocky and Bullwinkle (Data East)

Okay, time to see what a good table looks like. We'll start with "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends", because it's fun, (relatively) easy to install, and has great sounds from the show. It was produced by Data East, a Japanese pinball manufacturer. They made this one in 1993.

Now on with the show!

To run almost any pinball table in Visual Pinball you need at least two things. The table file (a .vpt extension), and a ROM file (a .zip extension). ROM stands for Read Only Memory. It's the way programming is stored on video games and pinball machines.

Okay, we're going to get the table and the ROM from vpforums but remember, you have to be logged in to download anything. Go to this link: http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=8782.

That's where we're going to get everything we need. There are other Rocky and Bullwinkles on the site, but I like the job mfuegemann did with this one, so we're using it as our first table.

DOWNLOADING

Start by clicking "Download" right next to the name of the table. I will tell you that sometimes I get an error message from vpforums saying the file isn't available or something. Go browse around the site and come back and eventually when clicking Download you'll get to the Disclaimer page. Read it, and click "Agree & Download" if you want to continue (I can't imagine how this could screw your computer up, but lawyers...). The next page is the actual download page. Choose the version with the highest number and click "Download". Once it's done, right-click on the downloaded file on your computer, select 7-Zip, then "Extract Files", then "OK". Open the new folder you created, and inside is the .vpt file! Voila! Your table has arrived!

Not so fast though, you still need the ROM. Go back to the original page for Rocky and Bullwinkle: http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=8782. Over on the right hand side, in the "File Information" box, there's item "ROM: Link to ROM". Click on "Link to ROM", and this will open the ROM page. Go through the download process again (click Download, Disclaimer, Download) and download the .zip file. DO NOT 7-Zip THIS OR EXTRACT IT IN ANY WAY! It isn't meant to be extracted, you use it just the way it is.

INSTALLING

Okay, right-click the Visual Pinball icon on your desktop, and choose "Open file location". Inside this folder, called "Visual Pinball", there is a "Tables" folder. That's where the .vpt file goes that we downloaded. Copy-Paste or Drag-Drop the contents of the folder containing the Rocky and Bullwinkle .vpt file into the Tables folder. You'll get a message saying you need to give administrator permissions to do it. Click "Continue".

Now go back to the "Visual Pinball" folder, where you saw the "Tables" folder. There's a "VPinMame" folder. Open that. Inside you'll see other folders, including a "roms" folder. Open that.

This is where you put the ROM file you downloaded. Just Copy-Paste or Drag-Drop the entire .zip file into this folder. You'll get a message saying you need to give administrator permissions to do it. Click "Continue". 

And that's it. The table should run perfectly. But it's not configured yet, and it will look awful. Sorry, more work to do.

CONFIGURING

Okay, lets see what we're dealing with here. Close all windows except this one, and then go to the desktop and double-click the Visual Pinball 9 icon to open it. Click "File", then "Open", then pick the .vpt we just added and click "Open". There should be a short delay while it loads, and then you get the child's drawing of a pinball table again, except now it looks like it was drawn by an architect on meth. Before you click play, which I know you want to do, just know that you press the "Escape" button to exit a table, and then pick "Quit to editor". Okay, go try to run your game.

Ugly, right? Sorry, but I warned you. Configuring the table is 99% of being able to enjoy it. You can run that monstrosity you saw, but you can't see what's going on.

Okay, on the editor you have some options on the left sidebar and some on the right sidebar. We'll use these to get the table working.

On the left sidebar, depress the "Options" and "Backd..." buttons. The "Select" button will be pressed anyway. It should look like this:

Now on the right sidebar you have three options: "Editor", "Colors & Formatting", and "Physics & Graphics". Right now we only care about "Colors & Formatting". We want it to look right on a laptop right now, so here's the settings. Change everything to match this:

Lastly, look up at the top menu, where "File" was when you opened the table. Click "Preferences", and then "Video Options...". Look in the "Video Mode" area, and select whichever resolution says "Windowed Fullscreen".

After clicking "OK", open the table. It should look a lot better. That thing where the score and the animations show? That's called a DMD. It may need adjustment. Right-click inside the DMD, and select "Show window border". Now you can click and drag the edges of the DMD to make it the size you want it, and also you can move it where you want it. After you have it in the right place, press the "Escape" button on your keyboard, and click "Quit to Editor".

Now open the "File" menu and click "Save".

Okay, you're done. Play a nice relaxing game of pinball. You deserve it.

Lesson 6) Another "good" table, with problems, Star Wars (Data East)

Under Construction...PLEASE let me know if you find errors or get confused somewhere!

Lesson 4) Installing Visual Pinball - Part 2

Updating Visual Pinball. What the installer installed is an old version. It won't run most tables. You have to update it to be able to download and play them.

No fear, it's a little weird and complicated, but we can do it. You'll be doing weirder and more complicated stuff than this before long.

#1) Download the latest visual pinball release. That means the one with the highest number (9.9-something?). Extract it using 7-Zip or whatever else you choose to use (Right click the zip file, select 7-Zip, select "Extract files...", click "OK").

Now, the tricky parts...

#2) Open the folder you just created (it should be named the same as the zip file was). Then go to your desktop and right-click on the visual pinball icon. Select "Open file location". This will open the folder Visual Pinball is actually in.

#3) You have two folders open. The unzipped folder, and the one Visual Pinball is in. In the unzipped folder, copy VPinball9xx.exe, FreeImage.dll and SciLexer.dll and paste them into the Visual Pinball folder. You can also drag and drop them if that's easier for you. You will get a warning saying you need administrator permissions to do this. Click Continue to allow the files to be moved.

#4) Right-click the VPinball9xx.exe you just moved in the Visual Pinball folder. Select "Properties" (bottom of the list). Click on the "Compatibility" tab at the top. Checkmark the "Run this program as an administrator" box. Click "Apply". Click "OK".

#5)  Right click the VPinball9xx.exe again. Select "Send to" and then "Desktop (create shortcut)". Go to the desktop and remove the old VPinball9xx.exe icon, leaving only the new one you just created.

#6) Download VPinMAME 2.5 (vpinmame_25.zip). Extract it using 7-Zip or whatever else you choose to use (Right click the zip file, select 7-Zip, select "Extract files...", click "OK").

#7) Open the folder you just created (it should be named vpinmame_25). Then go to your desktop and right-click on the visual pinball icon. Select "Open file location". This will open the folder Visual Pinball is actually in. Then open the VPinMame folder.

#8) You have two folders open, one named vpinmame_25 and one named VPinMame. In the vpinmame_25 folder, copy VpinMAME.dll and paste it into the VpinMame folder. You can also drag and drop them if that's easier for you.

#9) You will get a warning saying "The destination already has a file named 'VpinMAME.dll'". Click "Replace the file in the destination". You will get a warning saying you need administrator permissions to do this. Click Continue to allow the files to be moved.

#10) Whew! You should be done. Close out all the windows and folders except this one. Now, refer back to Lesson 3 and try to open the tables you had. Everything should run and act the same as it did before. Play a nice relaxing game of pinball before the next step. You deserve it.

Lesson 5) Your first "good" table

Under Construction...PLEASE let me know if you find errors or get confused somewhere!