Got the first test-prints of the playfield to decide what works and what doesn't, and I must say - it's looking GOOD!
There's a few minor tweaks that needs to be done. There's no white in the decal. At all. So I must either handpaint the inserts where white is needed or choose another textstyle that doesn't use white in it.
But I was prepared to that - the alternative was to have a solid decal and overlay the insert art. It could also work but doesn't give me the ultrasmooth playfield I'm aiming for.
I'm psyched - hopefully I'll have the game artwork during next week!
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
New Display
I just decided to give the LED displays another chance and ordered a Vishay-display with discrete LED's instead of LED-modules. Regarding to popular opinion these seem to work a lot better than PinLED's displays. All Vishay displays I found has been rather pricey, but the nice guys at PinballControllers suggested that I buy the display from Mouser instead, since their own stock ran out. Kudos!
Hopefully this display will meet my demands so that I can finally get the cabinet head together.
I can only hope, but one thing is certain - I will need a display!
Hopefully this display will meet my demands so that I can finally get the cabinet head together.
I can only hope, but one thing is certain - I will need a display!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
I heard you like pictures...
As the pinball design is becoming somewhat 100% (it will probably never be until it's printed) I thought you might like a little teaser image of the 2 GB large image file that is the playfield...
What we see here is a small piece of the left lower playfield with the in- and outlanes, slingshot, left ball lock etc. White areas will be cutout to create a little "boundary" of wood and allow for machinery and lights to protrude. It will also allow me to bolt down things without wrinkling the decal too much. The latter shouldn't be much of an issue as I intend to put a couple of layers lacquer on top of the playfield before assembling everything anyway.
The artwork's probably not as complete as I would like it to be, I'd like to have a little more small details that you see when your inspecting the playfield closely. I like that amount of detail in a game so presumably I'll try to get that into mine as well.
But I really think it's progressing nicely and feels kind of balanced. It might at the moment be a little un-orthodox compared to a classic pinball in terms of design, but it's my game. And my first at that - so I'll let it slide. ;)
But I'll probably at least try to color code the various parts that co-interact a bit more so it will be easier to distinguish various features from one another.
Next we have a picture of the main toy of the game - a big daddy, a.k.a Mr Bubbles!
He will if everything goes as planned have a rotating drill and a couple of Frankensteins monster-ish moves to go with that.
This piece was actually a lot large than I expected, so I had to do a little redesign in my design rather than chopping of his legs etc. But I like the size! It also allows me to insert machinery inside to make the drill rotate etc.
It has also got built in LED-lights which I intended to do, but this saves me the trouble. It will simply light green when he's active (i.e protecting a little sister), amber/yellow when searching (if a sister is targeted, or a shot is placed at big daddy directly) and finally red - hostile.
I hope to find more toys of equal quality - or maybe I'll attempt to do a couple of custom ones. I'd really like to have a splicer model as well - but they are almost just as large and I'm currently running out of room in the box!
 |
| 1) Lower left playfield. This picture was taken at 7% zoom rate. |
The artwork's probably not as complete as I would like it to be, I'd like to have a little more small details that you see when your inspecting the playfield closely. I like that amount of detail in a game so presumably I'll try to get that into mine as well.
But I really think it's progressing nicely and feels kind of balanced. It might at the moment be a little un-orthodox compared to a classic pinball in terms of design, but it's my game. And my first at that - so I'll let it slide. ;)
But I'll probably at least try to color code the various parts that co-interact a bit more so it will be easier to distinguish various features from one another.
Next we have a picture of the main toy of the game - a big daddy, a.k.a Mr Bubbles!
He will if everything goes as planned have a rotating drill and a couple of Frankensteins monster-ish moves to go with that.
It has also got built in LED-lights which I intended to do, but this saves me the trouble. It will simply light green when he's active (i.e protecting a little sister), amber/yellow when searching (if a sister is targeted, or a shot is placed at big daddy directly) and finally red - hostile.
I hope to find more toys of equal quality - or maybe I'll attempt to do a couple of custom ones. I'd really like to have a splicer model as well - but they are almost just as large and I'm currently running out of room in the box!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck...
Just sent blueprints to the factory to get a cost estimate and approval before it's going through the CNC machine. Turns out all carpenters/woodworker shops I've spoken to declined my design because it was to advanced for them. I guess the effects of a more computerized society is becoming increasingly evident among craftsmen as well... I had to resort to having an expensive CNC cutout after all.
Anywho -
I'm a bit nervous that I've missed or entered a digit wrong somewhere, but it's been so long without any progress so I'm thinking I'll probably be able to fix/drill a single or some holes on my own in case of emergency.
Fingers crossed!
It turns out I need 148 holes drilled (not counting regular inserts) for lights and posts alone etc. Stuff really adds up after a while! On top of that all the inserts and special holes, ball-locks etc.
Quite a beefy design in other words!
Anywho -
I'm a bit nervous that I've missed or entered a digit wrong somewhere, but it's been so long without any progress so I'm thinking I'll probably be able to fix/drill a single or some holes on my own in case of emergency.
Fingers crossed!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The time of my life!
It has now been 8 days since my beautiful daughter was born!
Words can't describe my feelings. Incredible!
Words can't describe my feelings. Incredible!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Still no tango
Mini-me has still not arrived!
And not much has been done on the machine.
I've gathered soundclips and started to outline where and when the various soundclips are to play - but nothing solid yet.
And not much has been done on the machine.
I've gathered soundclips and started to outline where and when the various soundclips are to play - but nothing solid yet.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
A lot of stuff!
Just wanted to say that I'm about to be a father very soon!
It will be awesome and I'm very much looking forward to it!
Expected "delivery" is in one week but in reality could happen anytime now - or 4 weeks from now. Bought the baby bed today! :)
Man, the list of stuff to do on the machine just keeps growing. But I'm optimistic that I'll send the end of it. Some day! But as you can expect, I'll probably have to work in a slower pace than usual on my pinball machine - unless I change gear and push forward a little stronger.
I've kind of reached my goal before the baby arrives - to have an assembled and playable machine.
It is somewhat assembled and could be playable but I've decided to not do any more assembling of the playfield parts until the proper playfield is created, as it will just take a lot more time to disassemble the playfield first.
So here's a quick rundown on what's done and what's left:
Hardware - Cabinet is done, still need proper playfield "hinges".
Electronics - Some wiring is left to be done, but mostly I'm waiting for the playfield to be fixed.
Artwork - Cabinet and playfield art is done, awaits printing.
Playfield - Need to create a proper playfield. Inserts needs to be fixed and sanded.
Playfield parts - Ready for assembly, but there's no proper playfield to place them on yet.
Sound - Need to record/get sound samples to use.
Music - Will use the official soundtrack .
Video - DMD converter is written, so I can export any image file into a custom 16 color DMD format.
Rules - Most of the game rules are figured out, but not necessarily written down.
Programming - Core elements are there, actual gameplay is yet to be written.
I had a major setback in the DMD department where I returned my display because it didn't look quite alright. As you can see in several of the pictures the various modules were very unevenly lit, and the lines of the LED's were not as aligned as they can be. Due to, in my opinion, a highly disrespectful customer service returning the display only gave me half the money refunded and a big fat insult on top of that.
The major component that is left is obviously the actual playfield - where the routing of the wood is my worst enemy right now. I had an offer with CNC routing, but that would cost me almost 700$... Yikes! A little too much on the pricey side, if you ask me.
I'm quite confident I'll be able to pull out or find decent soundclips from the games, so that shouldn't be a problem. Neither will the programming be since I eat code for breakfast. ;)
Video shouldn't be too much of an hassle either since there's a lot of video material that can be used, it's simply a matter of DMD-fying the graphics. The converter already supports animated images for easy animation import/export.
The biggest struggle is trying to plan ahead.
Like Ben Heck said - when building a pinball machine you really must think several steps ahead, and in some cases "where will this part, that I will install in a couple of months, go"... I've done a few of those mistakes, like drilling holes where the flipperbuttons should be only to find out that I forgot to compensate for the side-guards size and position...
But HOPEFULLY I've managed to dodge most bullets - past, present and future such - and will end up with a truly epic game. The whole idea is to have a pinball machine that looks like it could be produced by real pinball makers in a real factory. At least, that's the plan!
It will be awesome and I'm very much looking forward to it!
Expected "delivery" is in one week but in reality could happen anytime now - or 4 weeks from now. Bought the baby bed today! :)
Man, the list of stuff to do on the machine just keeps growing. But I'm optimistic that I'll send the end of it. Some day! But as you can expect, I'll probably have to work in a slower pace than usual on my pinball machine - unless I change gear and push forward a little stronger.
I've kind of reached my goal before the baby arrives - to have an assembled and playable machine.
It is somewhat assembled and could be playable but I've decided to not do any more assembling of the playfield parts until the proper playfield is created, as it will just take a lot more time to disassemble the playfield first.
So here's a quick rundown on what's done and what's left:
Hardware - Cabinet is done, still need proper playfield "hinges".
Electronics - Some wiring is left to be done, but mostly I'm waiting for the playfield to be fixed.
Artwork - Cabinet and playfield art is done, awaits printing.
Playfield - Need to create a proper playfield. Inserts needs to be fixed and sanded.
Playfield parts - Ready for assembly, but there's no proper playfield to place them on yet.
Sound - Need to record/get sound samples to use.
Music - Will use the official soundtrack .
Video - DMD converter is written, so I can export any image file into a custom 16 color DMD format.
Rules - Most of the game rules are figured out, but not necessarily written down.
Programming - Core elements are there, actual gameplay is yet to be written.
I had a major setback in the DMD department where I returned my display because it didn't look quite alright. As you can see in several of the pictures the various modules were very unevenly lit, and the lines of the LED's were not as aligned as they can be. Due to, in my opinion, a highly disrespectful customer service returning the display only gave me half the money refunded and a big fat insult on top of that.
The major component that is left is obviously the actual playfield - where the routing of the wood is my worst enemy right now. I had an offer with CNC routing, but that would cost me almost 700$... Yikes! A little too much on the pricey side, if you ask me.
I'm quite confident I'll be able to pull out or find decent soundclips from the games, so that shouldn't be a problem. Neither will the programming be since I eat code for breakfast. ;)
Video shouldn't be too much of an hassle either since there's a lot of video material that can be used, it's simply a matter of DMD-fying the graphics. The converter already supports animated images for easy animation import/export.
The biggest struggle is trying to plan ahead.
Like Ben Heck said - when building a pinball machine you really must think several steps ahead, and in some cases "where will this part, that I will install in a couple of months, go"... I've done a few of those mistakes, like drilling holes where the flipperbuttons should be only to find out that I forgot to compensate for the side-guards size and position...
But HOPEFULLY I've managed to dodge most bullets - past, present and future such - and will end up with a truly epic game. The whole idea is to have a pinball machine that looks like it could be produced by real pinball makers in a real factory. At least, that's the plan!
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