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!