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!

Lesson 3) Playing Visual Pinball for the first time

Congratulations! You actually have Visual Pinball installed on your computer! You can even run a REAL table! Try it!

On your desktop there's a shortcut to VPinball_9_0_2.exe

Right-click that, and choose "Run as administrator" from the list. ALWAYS RUN VISUAL PINBALL AS ADMINISTRATOR! It's the only way. I'll show you how to make it always run that way shortly, so you don't have to use the right-click window every time.

Anyway, the window that opened? That's what Visual Pinball looks like. A big blank screen.

Go to File on the menu, select "Open..."

Select TopSpeed.vpt

Click open.

Now you have what looks like a child's drawing of a pinball table in the window.

Over on the top of the side bar, click the Play button. It has a little triangle above it.

Stuff happens.

Then hey-yo! A table! Top Speed, a pinball table from 1975! Yep, a real table.

It looks a little basic, because it is. They don't all look like that. It's just a first taste. So play it a little

"5" adds a credit (like putting in a quarter).
"1" starts the game (like pushing the button on the front).
The "Enter" key is the plunger, for shooting the ball. Hold it a longer to pull the plunger out further, or less time to use less plunger.
The two "Shift" keys are the flippers.

And viola! You are playing pinball on your computer.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Lesson 4) Installing Visual Pinball - Part 2

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

Lesson 2) Installing Visual Pinball - Part 1

The first site you will use is vpforums. Go to their homepage, then navigate to "Getting Started" and click "Installation Guide".

Welcome to the wall of words!!! This page is a perfect example of over-helpfulness. Too much information - aaaaaand we're done.

Don't worry, it's really rather easy to get Visual Pinball installed.

The secret is, Visual Pinball is really TWO PROGRAMS!

One builds the tables (Visual Pinball, or VP), and the other runs them (Visual PinMame, or VPM).

You have to install both to get the program running. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Once you install them, you have to MANUALLY UPDATE THEM.

So, long story short, you are going to install THREE THINGS to get Visual Pinball to actually run a table. Let's get started.

Thing #1) VP Installer 1.0.3
You'll get a zip file. Extract this to a folder (right click the download, select "Extract files..." and click "OK" in the box that opens.

Now, look for the new folder you just created in your Downloads folder, VPInstaller_1_0_3. Find it? Open it and double-click the program to run it.

Don't worry, it's safe.

You'll get a window that asks for administrator permissions. Click Yes.

Welcome window. Click next.

License window. Accept the agreement. Click next.

Readme window with Attention info. Click next, I'll explain later.

Select Application folder window. Click next.

Ready to install window. Click Install.

Stuff happens.

Setup window with Install VPinMAME box checked. Click Finish.

You aren't finished. Somewhere behind all your other windows, a new window opened. 

Find open VPinMAME window. It has a bunch of boxes, but only Install and Quit are clickable. Click Install.

Warning Window. Click yes.

Successful install window. All boxes clickable. Click Quit.

All done...for now.

Lesson 3) Playing Visual Pinball for the first time

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

Lesson 1) Visual Pinball Resources

   http://www.vpforums.org/
   http://vpuniverse.com/
   http://www.7-zip.org/

You'll get most of what you're looking for from these two sites. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy. Within these sites and their forums lurks the most convoluted, arcane, disorganized vault of information ever perpetrated on an unwilling group of fans. THE ONLY REASON THIS POST EXISTS IS TO PROVIDE A SYSTEMATIC METHOD OF FINDING WHAT YOU NEED IN THESE FORUMS.

Before moving on, I suggest you  go download 7-Zip. The webpage is http://www.7-zip.org/ and you should pick the install appropriate to your computer (32-bit or 64-bit).

Now go to http://www.vpforums.org/ and http://vpuniverse.com/ and register with them so you can sign in. You won't be able to download any files unless you are registered and logged in. So get this done now.

Okay, now you're ready to get started.

Lesson 2) Installing Visual Pinball

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

INTRO - Easy Visual Pinball

It has come to my attention that there is a need, and I, being the great guy I am, will now undertake to fill it. To state it plainly:

Visual Pinball is a mess. It's too damn complex, and only after grueling, time-eating, head-hurting effort can you  configure it, or get the stupid thing to run properly.

SO, pinball-loving reader, I'm going to break it down for you, and make it as easy as I can. I'll go through things step by step, without ASSUMING you know what you need to do next. Honestly, you will find in the forums that 'helpful' users just bluster forth, without going over the most basic instructions.

But not me. Here goes...

Lesson 1) Resources

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