(Topic ID: 213534)

Undertale: Pinball Edition

By Gornkleschnitzer

5 years ago


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There are 221 posts in this topic. You are on page 1 of 5.
17
#1 5 years ago

Last year, at the Midwest Gaming Classic 2017, there were a couple of custom games floating around, and I developed a massive inspiration, and within several months I had confirmed myself 100% insane.

If I were to build a pinball machine, what theme would I reference? Now granted, I do have an original theme idea that I plan on exploring after this project is done, but my soul was already filled with determination. 11 design iterations later, I finally had a playfield design I liked, laid out in Visual Pinball.
Screenshot 2017-11-05 22.20.56 (resized).pngScreenshot 2017-11-05 22.20.56 (resized).png

The VP pic doesn't show my final version of the light shield artwork or a few other details that got changed along the way, but it was a good start. A local sign shop printed me vinyl decals for my cabinet, printed and applied my light shield decals, and even suffered through printing and cutting a plastic overlay for my playfield.

For those planning their own builds, take heed; do not do that. It basically worked (with full control over lamp shapes, and a black mask backing gave them nice contrast when backlit), but real lamp inserts definitely look MUCH better. I will definitely be researching how to properly cut them for next time.

I initially set the game up to be driven by a Raspberry Pi 3B, but ran into some pretty serious performance issues when trying to push full-screen animation (via the Allegro video game library) to the LCD. After it began throwing me undervoltage warnings, too, I dropped it and set up a full desktop motherboard inside the cabinet, and all my performance problems vanished.

The playfield itself is controlled by a trio of Teensy 3.5 boards. There was really no good excuse for this, given that even a single board is enough to emulate a Commodore 64. The biggest issue was the fact that there were only 40 breadboard-compatible GPIO pins, so the solution was BUY MORE BOARDS. Honestly, this entire process was a huge learning experience for me in a wide range of fields, and at the time I knew neither what a shift register was, nor how easy it is to wire up addressable LEDs. Live and learn.

As it stands now, Underpin has all the lights wired up, switches soon to be wired up, and all the coils in place, although there's a communication issue keeping a few of them from working yet. There was a little issue with the flipper buttons (particularly on the right) causing a weird grounding problem that caused several switches to detect as closed and a few solenoids to fire briefly, but I will soon be testing a fix that I came up with using an optoisolator chip, so hopefully that's cleared up now.
IMG_20180330_221833136 (resized).jpgIMG_20180330_221833136 (resized).jpg

Here's an Imgur album of a bunch of build details up to now. Under-playfield shots are included! And for those who need a tiny bit more than just a static photo, here's a video fly-by that includes the attract mode light sequence. It's a bit dark, definitely more so than it appears in real life, but it should give you an idea where I'm going with this:

Completion edit as of 4/15/19. Marking this game as truly complete now that it has debuted at the Midwest Gaming Classic 2019, although I will probably return to it in a few months and give it a software overhaul - after all, I haven't implemented the Genocide Route! This was a massively fun (and also massively frustrating) project to work on, and it's not going to be the last.

#2 5 years ago

just paste in the url to the video -- Pinside does the work of making it into an embedded video. you don't need to provide a bunch of embedding HTML code.

but i love this theme!!! i'm actually currently playing this game with my daughter (this and Cuphead, yeah i know we're behind).

#3 5 years ago
Quoted from Gornkleschnitzer:

(NOTE: I tried twice to post the YouTube link properly, video ID Rx37HrtJ4RE ... but this forum doesn't seem to like it. Anybody know how to do that properly?)

do you have the video set to private? when i use that id, it gives me a video not found error.

#4 5 years ago

Indeed, just pasting it worked fine. Thanks for the tip!

#5 5 years ago

it's still showing up as not found for me. are you sure you have it set to public?

edit: never mind, working now!

#6 5 years ago

do you have any higher-rez photos? i'd really like to see some of the details!

edit: never mind AGAIN, i just noticed the link to the imgur gallery.

#7 5 years ago

I took a cluster of playfield closeups that I'll try and attach below and see if it lets you see the full size versions.

I'll take some more Underplayfield (see wat i did thar) details over the weekend, perhaps, while I'm updating the wiring.

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1 week later
#8 5 years ago

Playfield underside is nearly complete as seen below. I have bid farewell to my 3-bank of drop targets. The hole was cut too small in both the wood and the overlay, and the large fixture made things a little harder to arrange than I would have liked. I will be installing static standups in their place.

Until now, most of the GPIO pins had superglued computer case connectors on them, with twisted pairs of every color of wire going in every direction. I have replaced several of them with custom connector blocks and uniform wires, and it looks a lot cleaner and will hopefully be more reliable as well. Will probably do the rest of them before reinstalling the playfield.

The cardboard template for one of the two subway tunnels is visible on the left. The other one will be on the right, providing a home for that floating microswitch.

I'll deal with soldering the flashers once the playfield is installed, but at least the wires are in place now. Nearly all the switches are wired up, not including the three standups I'll be installing.

Question for fellow builders. How do you hook up the transmitter side of a PBL ball trough? 5v or 12v? Do I need a resistor or can I just plug it right into the power rail?

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2 weeks later
#9 5 years ago

LIGHTS!
CAMERA!
ACTION!

Set up a few things this weekend and ironed out a few software bugs. Still have more to work on though - slingshot sensitivity varies between "fires twice" and "ball? what ball?" and the "virtual" temporary ball trough handling results in a lot of interrupted balls.

Notice in this video that I painfully try to avoid any major shot on the upper half of the playfield. This is because two eject holes have non-working coils (need to check the drivers on that) and there are no subway tunnels. At the end of the video, I miss my mark and hit the Grillby's scoop. That loud PLOP noise is, of course, the lack of a subway tunnel and its predictable results.

Another order goes out to Pololu sometime this week. That'll cover my remaining brackets (for scenery light shields) and the subway tunnels as well. Then I just need to learn how to vacuform...

#10 5 years ago

Following.

#11 5 years ago

My daughter would freaking love this game!

#12 5 years ago

https://www.fangamer.com/products/undertale-figurines-series-1

Looking promising ...

Here are some cool resin figures if you don't have them already. I bought some for my son last year .

1 week later
#13 5 years ago

Installed all 6 shiny new balls today and was totally hoping for perfect ball trough functionality and a full game uninterrupted by end-of-ball glitches.

And then I discovered that I had ordered 47K-ohm resistors instead of 47-ohm. And the trough optos thus remained lifeless.

Soooo ball trough still running in simulated mode. Ordered the right resistors from Marco since I also needed targets. I'm actually expecting my last metal cuts to arrive sooner, but at least that's another major bit of progress - after that, subway shots won't be game-breaking shots anymore. I can block off the VUK and ramp lanes and ALMOST feel like it's a real game.

#14 5 years ago

Well, I now know that in the future, I will avoid working with optos at all costs, due to the fact that I hate them.

Installed the 47-ohm resistors and it still didn't work. Maybe I previously fried them or something. Couldn't even seem to get a consistent voltage reading at the optos, although that wasn't a big surprise given that I hadn't actually planned for that connection on my power supply.

So, in yet another of an endless stream of kludges, I gestured the first half of Skroob's salute at the opto unit, dug through my surplus parts bin for a blade switch, and mounted it next to the ball trough with one lead bent to detect the first ball position. The switch worked perfectly, I lost the ability to detect a ball jam, and I'm okay with this.

Meanwhile, my metal arrived. Didn't have the screws for assembling the buildings, but I'll pick those up tomorrow morning. The subways didn't need any special assembly - just some bending - so I got those installed, and after some tweaking, I considered that particular job to be a massive success:

Yes, I smacked an unmounted flasher with the ball. At least it's tough plastic. I'm also aware that the "skeleton house" eject saucer needs further tweaking. Maybe PWM duty cycle, maybe digging out the hole a little more, maybe adding another guide wall. Lots to learn on this project!

1 week later
14
#15 5 years ago

Well, I will be posting a proper gameplay video soonish (after I finish the match sequence and maybe a bit more game logic). In the meantime, for your entertainment, here is a photo of me with the pinball machine I made.

I guess some things never change.

Granted, this pic is from 2002, but still relevant to this subforum, right?

Old Pinball 4 (resized).JPGOld Pinball 4 (resized).JPG

#16 5 years ago

Very nice.

#17 5 years ago

Well, soonish has happened. Here's a "proper" gameplay video. Machine was a little crooked but otherwise it was a nice test of my new Pinball Recording Mount (tm) made from scrap wood.

New elements in this video include a shortened bonus sequence and the brand-new match sequence. Which you can barely see due to the camera angle. Oh well. I'll post a better vid of those later. I temporarily turned off LED fading as there was apparently an issue with my PWM script, the result being that things weren't lighting up as bright as they should, as I learned very clearly when I jumpered my GI lights directly to ground. I might address it later or just leave it as it is. Hard on/off lights actually don't feel too out of place, given the "pseudo-retro video game" theme.

Also, it was almost midnight and I played horribly. I have good pinball days and bad ones, but usually not THAT bad.

1 week later
#18 5 years ago

Well done! Definitely the start of something good.

1 week later
#19 5 years ago

Blew my first fuse of the project today! Apparently, coils have power when the game is on. WHO KNEW. Thankfully nothing fried except the 50V fuse.

I am pleased to report that ALL lights now work as intended. The last flasher has been fixed (bad solder joint) and apparently I had a defective LED in my start button. Knocker still doesn't work - and the circuitry is good, and everything in the software checks out. No idea but not a huge priority at the moment.

Translite artwork is almost done - a few more tweaks and it's off to the print shop. That's the end of the custom art pieces for the game.

I'm not sure what I did wrong when designing the apron area, but the ball trough and autofire kicker assemblies did NOT like being so uncomfortably close together, meaning my original assembly required mounting the trough about 5/8" further from the right. It technically worked fine, but with the issue that there was now a 5/8" gap in front of the trough output. Yes, balls got stuck there all the time. This weekend, I finally addressed this problem with a combination of a glued-in scrap of wood to fill the gap and a spacer post next to the shooter lane to keep the ball out of that unfriendly gap too. Now that the ball doesn't have to do a daredevil stunt to jump a gap without getting stuck, I dropped the ball release kicker's power down to about 60%, reducing future wear and definitely cutting down on the noise of serving a ball.

I finally ordered my plastic sheets (1/16" thick, 2' x 4') for vacuum-forming the ramps. I don't know how well this will go, but at least I got a bit of extra just in case I mess it up. The same order included a handful of steel rods, which I will attempt to create my three wireform ramps with.

Every time I play this thing, I find new bugs and potential improvements, and eventually head for the desktop to fix them. I updated my task scheduler system to allow for additional parameters, and was thus able to implement a timeout system that flashes a light progressively faster until the timer expires, which automatically clears whatever flag is referenced. One-second hidden grace period included!

The slingshots were still giving double-fire issues when triggered by a ball search. I updated the controller firmware to fix this (by briefly ignoring the slingshot switch any time the solenoid fires, not just if the switch is hit), but not before managing to break it so that the slingshots would only detect the ball after the coil fires. I wasn't sure why the slings weren't working at first - until a ball search triggered them each twice.

In Undertale, there is a secret room called Temmie Village, filled with small half-cat, half-dog creatures who aren't good at spelling. The Tem Shop is an area where you can buy healing items and armor (after helping fund Temmie's "colleg" classes). I thought it would be appropriate to tie this into my game by making the Tem Shop a random award feature. Awards include:
-Points
-30s ball saver
-Lighting major shots for a time-limited points bonus
-Light extra ball
-Empty the entire ball trough onto the playfield for no reason

I'll probably be posting a new gameplay video soonish!

Edit - for details I forgot to mention. Got my replacement "h-O-I" targets installed now and working great. Doesn't have the action of drop targets, but at least they fit properly into my slightly undersized playfield cutout.

#20 5 years ago

I realized it's been a while since I posted actual photos of this thing... so here's some new stuff.

Upper playfield almost done. Constructed buildings out of PETG light shields, complete with Mettaton standing in front of his resort with a target instead of a wheel. There are a few hanging wires (ramp switches) and a hanging flasher (ramp flasher) but those will be fastened down soon enough.
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I apparently never posted an actual cabinet interior pic, so here we go. Computer goes where the coin box would be, next to a duplex outlet box switched by a solid state relay. Plugged into the box are the monitor and a spliced power cable that feeds the 50V transformer and the backbox sound system. No subwoofer yet. Probably should add one at some point. The motherboard is protected by a plexiglas shield which has indeed saved it a few times.
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The makeshift prop rod (a leftover from building the outer guide walls) is now optional, as the playfield can be tilted up and held in place with a gate latch I bought from work today. This worked surprisingly well, and holds the playfield at approximately the balancing point so there's no danger of it warping from staying up for service for a while. Plus I can do any cabinet work I want without being worried that it will fall back down and use the ball trough as a guillotine blade.
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Under playfield is pretty much done. Subway tunnels are built with the same laser-cut #304 stainless steel as the playfield ball guides. Probably more expensive than they could've been, but tough as heck... and that short run (shown far left, straight down to the eject) makes an awesome noise when the ball lands in it. I don't even know why, but I'm not going to complain. I love cool noises.
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Finally... though I am ashamed, the word will get out eventually so I have to make it known. My cabinet is crooked. Horribly, horribly crooked. That's not a maladjusted lockdown bar - the left side of the cabinet is skewed forward by almost 3/4". Not entirely sure how I managed this.
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And I believe I promised gameplay footage.

The above video shows off the new Tem Shop, extra balls, and a number of glitches that must be fixed soon:
- Extra Ball light stays blinking after collected.
- Ruins scoop event is triggered by hitting the subway that feeds it.
- Probably more stuff.

Can't see the screen? Never fear; I recorded a closeup of that too.

#21 5 years ago
Quoted from Gornkleschnitzer:

I realized it's been a while since I posted actual photos of this thing... so here's some new stuff.
Upper playfield almost done. Constructed buildings out of PETG light shields, complete with Mettaton standing in front of his resort with a target instead of a wheel. There are a few hanging wires (ramp switches) and a hanging flasher (ramp flasher) but those will be fastened down soon enough.

I apparently never posted an actual cabinet interior pic, so here we go. Computer goes where the coin box would be, next to a duplex outlet box switched by a solid state relay. Plugged into the box are the monitor and a spliced power cable that feeds the 50V transformer and the backbox sound system. No subwoofer yet. Probably should add one at some point. The motherboard is protected by a plexiglas shield which has indeed saved it a few times.

The makeshift prop rod (a leftover from building the outer guide walls) is now optional, as the playfield can be tilted up and held in place with a gate latch I bought from work today. This worked surprisingly well, and holds the playfield at approximately the balancing point so there's no danger of it warping from staying up for service for a while. Plus I can do any cabinet work I want without being worried that it will fall back down and use the ball trough as a guillotine blade.

Under playfield is pretty much done. Subway tunnels are built with the same laser-cut #304 stainless steel as the playfield ball guides. Probably more expensive than they could've been, but tough as heck... and that short run (shown far left, straight down to the eject) makes an awesome noise when the ball lands in it. I don't even know why, but I'm not going to complain. I love cool noises.

Finally... though I am ashamed, the word will get out eventually so I have to make it known. My cabinet is crooked. Horribly, horribly crooked. That's not a maladjusted lockdown bar - the left side of the cabinet is skewed forward by almost 3/4". Not entirely sure how I managed this.

And I believe I promised gameplay footage.
The above video shows off the new Tem Shop, extra balls, and a number of glitches that must be fixed soon:
- Extra Ball light stays blinking after collected.
- Ruins scoop event is triggered by hitting the subway that feeds it.
- Probably more stuff.
Can't see the screen? Never fear; I recorded a closeup of that too.

Looks great! I appreciate the details on how you constructed different parts and materials used. That really helps those of us in the homebrew community whose background is in other areas. Good work!

1 week later
#22 5 years ago

Milestone reached!

The exterior, as far as I can tell, is done.

Last week, I found a set of speakers (automotive perhaps?) that seemed perfect to fill the void that was my game's bass response. Unfortunately, when I hooked one of them up in the bottom of my cabinet, nothing happened. The cheapo Chinese desktop stereo that I picked apart to build UT's sound system utterly refused to touch such a beefy speaker. This a problem because the current setup would probably not be audible at a show.

The solution was to rip out that lackluster circuitry and replace it with a better quality amp taken from a better quality desktop stereo. This time, I assembled a full sound system on the bench before attempting installation, and was very pleased with the results. Once I was satisfied with it, I pulled out the original speaker panel, removed the mildly pathetic bass speaker from the center and covered the hole, and repainted the whole thing in gloss black. Pre-speaker-grille photo below.

The difference was incredible. Adding some real bass did wonders for the game's soundtrack. I was planning to finally cut out a subwoofer hole in the floor, but was surprised to note that the bass response was actually fine without it.

Am I forgetting anything?

Oh yes... and the sign shop called today. The translite is done, too.

This weekend: Tweaking my newly welded wireform ramps... more on this later. Up next: Plastic ramps and a lot more software.

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#23 5 years ago

Still following and still looks awesome!

#24 5 years ago

The hot metal stage is now complete.

The wireform shaping is done as of today, all the guides and mounts in place where I wanted them. I ordered steel bar stock from Grainger - 5/32" for rails, 1/8" for ramp rings, and 3/32" for wire gates and guides. I'm not a welder but my dad is, so between me, him, and some brass welding stock, we built wireforms.

Three pieces total - for the curvy center ramp, the straighter left ramp, and a VUK. Pic below; the VUK wireform is resting on the ramp it feeds, so it looks like one large bent piece... but I'm sure you can tell how it goes.

Ramp rings were formed by clamping a 1/8" rod to a 1-1/4" wooden rod and pulling it around, then cutting with a grinder. It was a little cramped around the ball near the end, but it still rolled through smoothly and that's all that counts.

This week I will be looking around for local places that can do powder coating and/or chrome plating.

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#25 5 years ago

Wow, this looks awesome! The playfield design in particular looks great! I hope I get a chance to try this out some day!

#26 5 years ago

Thanks! If you're considering travel plans, think about the Midwest Gaming Classic - I'm hoping to bring UT for 2019. Also hoping for some prior on-location testing in Escanaba, MI, either late this summer or early next spring/summer.

So... I might not need to find a "local" chromeplating service - after all, Pinball Plating is a thing. Will be looking into that.

Now for a pedantry question for anyone. This game's backbox art panel is a sheet of acrylic, with a reverse-printed vinyl sticker providing the art. This forms one solid unit that doesn't separate. Is this a translite? Or a backglass? Or something else entirely? I honestly don't know!

#27 5 years ago

Yesterday a twin order from Marco and PBL showed up on my doorstep and I set to work on some minor improvements:

-Installed a backbox lock.
-Added a connector plug for the speaker panel so it can be easily removed (...now that it's done and probably won't be removed again)
-Installed longer post bolts on the star posts that will be supporting the wireform ramps.
-Tweaked the slingshot switches to absolute perfection.
-Replaced a rubber that I had mistakenly ordered in green at first.
-Installed the last two switches (for the soon-to-be-designed plastic ramps)

Turns out I will have to enlarge a few of the wireform mounting loops as they were too tight. My order also included six plastic spacers, which I will use to improve the return lane guides. I will be ordering clear PETG shields to prevent airballs on the ramps, and at the same time I will get a second set of inlane plastics. These will be clear and will form the middle layer between the art pieces and the metal guides. The metal guides themselves will be reordered but with actual cutouts for the GI lights, which I forgot the first time around.

Upcoming software tweaks include expanding the "machine gunning prevention" feature of the slingshots to include the jet bumper as well, and reducing the flipper button debounce to make tap passes easier. I recently played UT followed by F14 and the difference in ball control ability was remarkable.

The jet bumper also needs some physical switch tweaking. It's a weird balance between "sometimes not sensitive enough to detect a hit" and "sometimes fires from hitting a nearby scoop hard enough." Reminds me of the slingshots, so I'm confident I can fix this.

#28 5 years ago

This week, the backbox "MERCY" light went out, and my suspicions immediately jumped to the Molex connector connecting body and head. It was one of the first such connectors I have ever done, and it only needed a brief look and a little manual tug to confirm it was a terrible connection that needed re-doing. So, since working space is nonexistent in the back corner of the cabinet, I pulled out the playfield. Gained FREE inner cabinet scratches... yay... but touched those up with the original paint.

Ran out of Molex pins in the parts bin, so had to order a few more. Got 100 of both male and female since they're cheap. Will not be running out of THOSE again. Re-pinned as much of the connector as I could, and marked wires to make sure I didn't mix them up.

As long as the playfield was out of the cabinet, with the dark corners easily accessible, I made a few important tweaks. I pulled a screw from the side of the left eject hole and tapped the metal wall inwards with a rubber mallet. This should keep the playfield wood from hanging over the edge and preventing the scoop from kicking the ball correctly.

Speaking of kickout fixes, the Snowdin saucer eject got a bit of love as well, with a wire guide bracket to shield the exit from a bad rebound off the nearby rubber. Once I crank up the PWM power a bit, there should be no more problems getting the ball to eject properly from that saucer.

The one issue I've run into as a result of my thicker playfield (1/2" plywood, but with a 1/16" plastic overlay for the art) is the jet bumper switch, so as long as I could access it, I tweaked the bracket with some odd angles so the spoon switch would sit 1/16" closer to the playfield surface. After adjusting the switch itself and mounting in place, I'm confident the bumper will work a lot better.

With the wireforms all test-fitted where they belong, I have found that the ball, coming off the end of the ramps, bounces off the slingshots into the outlanes a lot. My inlane guide replacement order will therefore also include vertical walls to prevent bad bounces.

This thing is very close to done (physically) now.

#29 5 years ago

Looks nice, but what game did it used to be? a Gottlieb?

#30 5 years ago

I'm always stunned when anyone takes on a project or re-theme or custom themed pinball. I just don't have the talent or commitment to the time and effort it takes. Really outstanding stuff here.

chris

#31 5 years ago
Quoted from Luzur:

Looks nice, but what game did it used to be? a Gottlieb?

It was originally several sheets of 4' x 8' birch plywood from the lumberyard. It wasn't earning many quarters that way, so I built this out of it.

Mechanicals are all brand new assemblies ordered from the usual suspects. Probably spent more than I should have.

2 weeks later
#32 5 years ago

Yes, things have been slow. I just got through sending my wireforms off to Pinball Plating, so that'll be good to finally have completed. Before removing, I took measurements where exactly the ramp ends fell, so I will be able to use those measurements to design and mold my plastic ramps.

Got a bunch of important software updates in place now as well, and working towards implementing the main boss modes. I also added a light sequencer script (concept stolen shamelessly from Visual Pinball, of course) and the resulting light effects look gorgeous. Keeps things from getting monotonous during attract mode, and really adds to the immersion during ingame events.

What else is taking up my time? Oh, yes - cleaning and rearranging the entire basement to make room for the Road Show that I'm picking up in a week. Super excited for that one! Once everything is back in order, I can really start to work on this one again.

1 week later
#33 5 years ago

Incredible. Any chance you'll be taking it to VFW for the fall 2018 mini-show?

#34 5 years ago

Admittedly, I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm not much of a traveler, so probably not. I'm hoping to bring it to next year's Midwest Gaming Classic though.

1 week later
#35 5 years ago

Epic fail.

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Somehow I was expecting this. Frame was too small for the part (mostly due to size limits on my oven), heat might not have been enough, mold was cardboard and duct tape.

I am thinking about building metal ramps instead, since at least I know how to do that. Give it the "1980 Black Knight" look.

The thing is, in a way I do like the way the molded plastic worked, and I feel like I would be able to use it for future endeavors that don't require such specific shapes. Maybe certain mountainous structures. I also wonder if I could use a two-piece mold (clamped over a piece of hot plastic) to create a ramp. Lots of things to consider.

3 weeks later
#36 5 years ago

Today's news will shock you. I'm not dead! And neither is this project!

Metal walls and plastic floor for the new ramps is expected to arrive on Wednesday, along with some rivets and other supplies from Marco. Still waiting on Hot Rod Arcade for my plated wireforms. In the meantime, I decided to get serious with mode programming, and I've at least made a bit of progress on that.

I also built a new camera mount, as my game room rearrangement put F-14 Tomcat under the old one. This one has a much closer angle, and although the display is still a bit hard to see on camera, it still does work.

The goal of today's video was simply to show off Toriel's timed mode in which all major targets score 10K when hit. However, I got a little sidetracked after making a shot to the Tem Shop, which awarded me Dog Residue - which, in Undertale Pinball Edition, empties the entire trough onto the playfield. So... 6-ball multiball first.

Towards the end of the video, a ball gets hopelessly stuck above where the center ramp will soon be located - but never fear: Ball search to the rescue! I might have to reduce the amount of time between ball searches as the wait seems a bit long, but it definitely gets the job done, and serves a new ball after two failed searches.

I apologize for the incident at the right eject scoop in which it takes three tries to get the ball out! I had this perfected, then had to remove the scoop to install right-angle LEDs in the scoop's feature light sockets, and apparently didn't do a good enough job putting it back together. I'll be fixing that soon.

#37 5 years ago

Yesterday the ramp supplies showed up. Since I don't have the rivets yet (Marco order expected Thursday), I couldn't build the ramp entrances - but I could update my return lanes.

The old ones used a solid stainless guide, in which I had forgotten to leave cutouts for light to shine through. This sucked. Another issue was that any imperfect bounce out of the wireforms would end up in the outlane, which is also bad.

IMG_20180828_175322757 (resized).jpgIMG_20180828_175322757 (resized).jpg

Solution: New guides with added guard walls. The walls are a separate part, which I can reverse if balls prove to get stuck beside the slingshot often. As long as I was buying thick stainless for that, I also put GI cutouts into the plan. Since my order included PETG for the ramp floors, I also threw in a couple of inlane light shield blanks to give the area a bit more depth and give the light more room to spread across the printed shields. I always liked the deeper "stacked" inlane style, so I was glad I finally got to implement it here.

IMG_20180828_175451543_LL (resized).jpgIMG_20180828_175451543_LL (resized).jpg

A few extra spacers and the whole assembly went together pretty seamlessly on both sides.

IMG_20180828_180634633 (resized).jpgIMG_20180828_180634633 (resized).jpg

Last photo: All lit up. I'm happy with this.

IMG_20180828_180836273_BURST000_COVER_TOP (resized).jpgIMG_20180828_180836273_BURST000_COVER_TOP (resized).jpg

1 week later
#38 5 years ago

RAMP ENTRANCES ARE DONE!

The process required two Marco orders, as I didn't order enough rivets the first time. Fortunately, my second order stocked up on them massively, so I will have plenty for future work. I also picked up a sheet of spring steel for the ramp flaps, which nicely dulled one of my drill bits (but the end result looked great).

The first order also included a rivet clamp, which worked very nicely for about three of the 30 rivets. The trouble was, most of the rivets on these ramps are too far from an edge for the relatively small clamp to reach. So for all the rest, I used various solid objects (wood blocks, steel stock, and the anvil surface of a vise) to support the nicer side of the ramp, and hammered on the bottoms of the rivets with a center punch and a ballpeen hammer. It actually worked amazingly well - arguably better results than the rivet clamp.

I had carefully measured everything when ordering my laser cuts for the ramps, so naturally once I had everything assembled, it didn't fit in the game whatsoever. I had to trim light shields and bend brackets into unrecognizable shapes, but... after a bit of a struggle and a bit of re-machining, I was able to get both ramps firmly installed in the game. The center ramp switch does not register - probably because I used a somewhat nonstandard GPIO pin to control it - but I will get that fixed soon enough.

Except for minor fixes, all that remains is the wireforms and some software. Might contact Hot Rod Arcade soon and see if they have an ETA on when the chromeplating might be done. On the software side, there is now a payoff award that you build up by hitting switches in the Snowdin area, a new relevant Tem Shop award, and I'm making actual, noticeable progress on the main boss modes.

In other news, the somewhat hit-and-miss jet bumper switch has been perfected.

IMG_20180908_191132474 (resized).jpgIMG_20180908_191132474 (resized).jpgIMG_20180909_112816832 (resized).jpgIMG_20180909_112816832 (resized).jpgIMG_20180909_112828935 (resized).jpgIMG_20180909_112828935 (resized).jpg
#39 5 years ago

Awesome! Great work

3 weeks later
21
#40 5 years ago

Well, I did it.

IMG_20181004_201201402 (resized).jpgIMG_20181004_201201402 (resized).jpg

The ramps are complete, thanks to the incredible plating work of Chris at Hot Rod Arcade.

IMG_20181004_170452200 (resized).jpgIMG_20181004_170452200 (resized).jpg

All that remains are minor tweaks and a bunch of software. But for all intents and purposes, this build is physically done.

#41 5 years ago

Bravo!

Congrats on a _big_ milestone!

#42 5 years ago

Looks very intriguing! Nice work.
Terry.

#43 5 years ago

Impressive! And it's looking good.

#44 5 years ago

Well done.

#45 5 years ago

Congrats! That was quite an endeavor. Are you going to bring it to Expo? I'd love to see/play it in person.

#46 5 years ago

Thanks guys! I'm not a traveler but I am definitely planning on bringing this game to the 2019 Midwest Gaming Classic.

Also... even for me, this game is murderously challenging. Might end up having to tone down the difficulty a bit!

#47 5 years ago
Quoted from Gornkleschnitzer:

The ramps are complete, thanks to the incredible plating work of Chris at Hot Rod Arcade.

LOL he posted these on his thread and I was immediately intrigued where they went. Now we know!

Whole thing looks great!!

1 week later
#48 5 years ago

Just got through doing some testing. It's going to need some switch adjustments (and possibly switch connector fixes) but otherwise it's running well. All eight boss modes can be reached, three are fully implemented.

Initially, the plan was that you would advance through the modes (indicated by the eight red lights on the heart) linearly, like you do in the real Undertale. But between play testing and even discussion on this site about games with stories, I've decided to diverge from canon a little bit and allow all but the last two modes to be played in any order. This way you get fresh modes to play each time instead of the same sequence.

I will post a new gameplay video once the modes are fully implemented - then I can move on to perfecting the Genocide Run, in which you basically murder every monster you encounter instead of trying to appease them.

Here's another random photo from my past. In 2008 I tried to build a "real" pinball machine called Volcano Blast. It was based on a design I created in Future Pinball (first mistake), built into a cabinet made of butt-jointed CDX plywood (second mistake), using parts purchased on an extremely limited budget (third mistake). First pic is the game being played at our science fair (everybody got a turn), second is a clearer playfield shot.

Science fair (resized).JPGScience fair (resized).JPGVolcano Blast (resized).JPGVolcano Blast (resized).JPG

Although the design on my computer screen featured light shield art, wireform ramps, and multiple eject holes and saucers, none of that actually got built. The only devices that worked on the game were the flippers.

The game was disassembled long ago, but all useful standard parts got a new home during the restoration of my SoF, and the remaining parts used for other games. The microswitches I had bought for this game ended up being used on Undertale!

Edit: I did the translite art, and a high school friend of mine did the playfield art. Not sure if he really understood what playfield art was supposed to look like...

#49 5 years ago
Quoted from Gornkleschnitzer:

Well, I did it.
[quoted image]
The ramps are complete, thanks to the incredible plating work of Chris at Hot Rod Arcade.
[quoted image]
All that remains are minor tweaks and a bunch of software. But for all intents and purposes, this build is physically done.

You shure did.
I like de layout, great game.

2 weeks later
#50 5 years ago
Quoted from Gornkleschnitzer:

Here's another random photo from my past. In 2008 I tried to build a "real" pinball machine called Volcano Blast. It was based on a design I created in Future Pinball (first mistake), built into a cabinet made of butt-jointed CDX plywood (second mistake), using parts purchased on an extremely limited budget (third mistake).

I'm curious, why would you say designing the game in Future Pinball was a mistake? Do the measurements of objects in FP not translate to real life properly, or was it because FP allows you to leave out elements that with be crucial IRL? I've got some designs I made in FP that I think I'd enjoy building IRL if I ever find the time and resources, but I'm curious how much of a challenge that would be with them being FP blueprints.

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