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!