OK, need some help with my ACDC pro V1.65. I replaced Let there be rock with Dirty Deeds and the update keeps on failing after step 1 of 3. It says error 8. Any idea what could be causing it. I know the song is shorter, but I thought that was ok? I did everything as instructed. I assume when everyone else gets the update fail, they are at the end of 3 of 3?

Step 1 of 3? Are you trying to verify the image? You don't want to do that, it will fail.

Agreed. I only got the update failed message after step 3 which still results in the modified code being applied correctly. I skipped image verification as well.

Yup, that did it. Thanks guys!!!! This rocks!!!!

Think I will tackle my Metallica tomorrow. Game needs fight fire with fire

Some shitty video of whiskey in a jar. Replaced unforgiven with it. It was super easy. Very excited to fully tweak my song list now.

#action=share

Lots of new images in the metallica 1.13 that are not used yet. Good stuff!

And it just keeps getting better. Thanks for adding the ability to change text!!!
Here is my new song title.

IMG_0010.jpg

Great job, once again. I do have a quick suggestion for an added feature after flipping through the messages feature a bit.

Could you add a "find" feature for the messages tab? A window to type in what you are looking for and also a "next" and "previous" button to cycle through found results?

Awesome. Not I need to change my song title on Metallica and reflash AGAIN. I'm flashing my game way too often now

Nice! both on modding, and the fact that you picked up a metallica.. I guess no projects for a while?

I'm loving this thread, now if I only had a modern stern to play around with code too

No projects for myself. Plenty of work for others.

I can't believe more people aren't excited about this. This should truly be the hottest topic on pinside right now. It's something with discussing.

Jim.

This is awesome! I was thinking the only thing missing was changing the text.

I wonder what the album titles are doing in the MEtallica rom ... hmmmmm

Whaaaaa? Some crazy match the song to the album bonuses like acdc and matching the tours?

Jim

This is interesting.

Metallica PRO and LE are identical with regards to images and sounds.
BUT the LE has much less free memory available, which can only be attributed to programming rules and messages!

Name = METALLICA LE Version : v1.13 Date : JUN. 10, 2013 Free memory : 270079
Sound System :
1152 sound requests 3518 sound scripts (v3) 1174 sound fragments Type 1 : 1174
Display System : 4791 images (v2) Raster-0 : 1895 Compressed-1 : 720 Compressed-3 : 2 Compressed-7 : 2086 Compressed-9 : 18 Raster-12 : 70
Messages : 1589 messages

Name = METALLICA PRO Version : v1.13 Date : Free memory : 314815
Sound System :
1152 sound requests 3518 sound scripts (v3) 1174 sound fragments Type 1 : 1174
Display System : 4791 images (v2) Raster-0 : 1895 Compressed-1 : 720
Compressed-3 : 2 Compressed-7 : 2086 Compressed-9 : 18 Raster-12 : 70
Messages : 1567 messages

I'm totally agree with you. I'm surpised more people aren't talking about this considering all the possibilities it offers.

If you consider this utility a "mod" then its truly the most significant one ever. With some effort (ie a lot) you could totally re-theme a modern Stern machine with all new call outs, music, dots, and sound effects. The only thing we can't change (yet) is the rules.

Metallica re themed into Iron Maiden like everyone keeps wanting is a very real reality with this.

except the superb maiden art would be missing.

It is just fun browsing the rom file. It is amazing how stuff is really in there. It really makes you aware of the amount of time it must take to create it all. You get to see some of the ideas they just did not have time to implement yet.

What can be done on IM? Anyone do anything cool with that?

Based on some of his other projects I think Whridlsoncestood would be up to the task of re-arting a playfield.

Just out of curiosity, what does it mean in the message window (when you double click a message to change it) when it says something like (X/Y) "14/15" or "17/19" at the bottom? I'm guessing that means the message is using X characters of Y available, and that the message cannot be longer than Y?

Very nice work oga83!

Hehe, there's even vocal quotes from James saying all the album names, but he can't keep a straight face on 'black album'.

Trust me. Gears are turning in my head. It's tought to do something like that when its in perfect shape already, has great art and is a huge chunk of change to start. Once one of these games is heavily routed and beat to hell I will take on this project

Jim

Does he say St Anger anywhere? I noticed every album is present in some way on the playfield art. Can't find and hints to that one tho. Nor is any music from it. Not complaining. Just curious if it is completely free of that album in every way.

Jim

Wow. How did I miss out on this thread? Awesome work. Now I might have to seriously think about getting a Metallica and tweaking the song list. That would be awesome! I had a pretty fun time playing a pro last weekend and a different song list would totally do it for me.

Not if someone redid the dots (which is possible with Pinball Browser) and re-did the playfield, translite, and cabinet art.

I expect to see big things from this small (only 56KB) program, but a complete re-theme will take time.

I think there needs to be a "Re-Theme by Expo 2013" competition.

I went through the rom again and I think they removed that from 1.13, it was at position 1134; 0x3A0 in 1.06. Things have been changed around a bit. I think they took out "black album (james laughs)" as well.

Can we summarize (please correct me if I get anything wrong)

If you replace a song, and it's longer it gets cut off, if it's too short you get dead air at the end
I'm assuming if you replace animation, it has to be the same number of frames?

Not saying a retheme isn't impossible on existing Sterns, but beyond rules it could be somewhat limiting?

Maybe I'll play around with this and see if I can make some custom animation

Limiting is one term...challenging is another.

I found replacing Creeping Death with Ride the Lightning on Metallica was a no brainier. They were the same length. Oddly enough Creeping Death is what plays during Electric Chair Multiball. So what is more fitting during Electric Chair Multiball... a song about a plague in Egypt or a song about an getting killed in an electric chair?

Replacing the live tracks during the attract juke box in AC/DC seem to be very simple as long as you put in a shorter song.

The biggest drawback in my mind was the DMD had the title of one some when you selected the added other song...that is no longer an issue. The DMD can be matched with the song selected.

I would agree that a complete re-theme would be a challenge as of now, but I think with work it would be possible. I also think AC/DC and Metallica for another band would be the easiest route to do this.

Rock! Rock On!

So what has been the best integration for Dirty Deeds so far? Just as a radio track?

a simple suggestion (if still not done), see all the messages here :

for those who have rebuild a own ROM, why not create a new topic with all (and only) these put in there & available for others to dwld (if, of course, this is not a legal problem)

with info on the pin/ROM, the mod done, & of course the dwld link

!?

oga83 -

Can these revised changes be easily saved into a ROM? For instance when dirty deeds song and title to are changed in above thread, can that person burn changes to ROM file using a software front end so others only need to upload it rather than recreate? Removing these steps of installing extra software and having to do it replicate same shanges may seem trivial, but these are additional barriers to those of us who are not computer literate, but who can install a memory stick and flip a dip switch to upload code.

Its truly amazing what you have accomplished oga83 with this tool. Thanks for your continued work.

Is it possible to see the rules programmed in the rom? I understand it's a compile, but it would be very cool to peek inside and see the rules or the programming logic even if it was impossible to change the code. It would help to understand the complexity and marvel of these games.

Well, in a dreamworld, I'd rather see the ability to use songs/speech callouts of different lengths. It would eliminate the hassle of finding a perfectly-looping 29.322 second clip...

Pete

oga83, I have run into an issue when I was trying to modify a message on my X-Men software.

Looking through the texts that are in the game I can see that they are sectioned up by modes on X-Men. My goal was to replace a picture of Wolverine in the Xavier mode with a picture of Shadowcat. That part went fine.

The next step was to replace the text "WOLVERINE" in the Xavier mode section to "SHADOWCAT". That changed fine...but what I noticed is it also changed the text "WOLVERINE" that was any place in the software with "SHADOWCAT" instead of just replacing the one location I needed changed.

In this case...that would pretty much wreck the software...as "WOLVERINE" is used a lot and it should only be changed to "SHADOWCAT" in the one specific place.

So is there anyway to make it so the changed text is only changed in the specified location that a user manually changes it?

On the pictures below I have the text I mean to change highlighted. The red circled areas are other places where "WOLVERINE" is used and the green circled area is the Xavier mode section of the software. You can see in the second pic that the other "WOLVERINE" locations that I didn't want to change were automatically changed to "SHADOWCAT".

NameExampleBEFORE.jpg NameExampleAFTER.jpg

That's a bit over my head.

I figured the info at the right of the window (0x5DF) meant that message was it's own and that was it's location and I was surprised to see it have any connection to any of the other messages with a different number / location.

I know in Metallica and AC/DC if the longest song file is replaced, it also replaces the smaller sound clips of that song. That makes sense to me...as it shows right in the browser that the long song clips are made up of many segments. I assume that these smaller clips get their info from different segments of those large clips.

I can understand that if a game uses "WOLVERINE" many times...that there may just be one "WOLVERINE" message in the software and all uses of it are just taken from the same location. It just seems odd that if a message is in one location and changed...it automatically changes others.

As I said...over my head. I hope you can find a way around this. I have really only looked around the message section of X-Men, but it seems pretty well organized as far as knowing what messages are for what modes. I am sure the one I changed in the picture above is the one that does need changed for Xavier mode...I just wasn't expecting the other changes to come with it.

Thanks for listening and thanks again for the program.

Ok, so after a day of trying to modify "Who Made Who", I am officially giving up. The song is not balanced enough to pull it off without having a ton of static. Maybe I can try a live version.

Added
Shoot To Thrill
Dirty Deeds
It's a Long Way to the Top
Money Talks

Removed
Back In Black (difficult choice)
Whole Lotta Rosy
Let there be rock
Hell ain't a bad place to be.

oga83, I have another round of questions for you.

I am still tinkering with the Xavier mode in X-Men. The way the mode works is 1 of 23 characters are selected at random and the DMD displays an outline of this characters picture. When you hit the shot that is associated with this character...it reveals the characters picture and displays their name.

When these character pictures are exported with Pinball Browser they are in a square shape with white surrounding them. I tried to replace a file just like that, but when the mode started...instead of showing the outline of the new character it was just a square. When the character was revealed....it displayed correctly, but only after I had changed the white area surrounding her to a black one. Otherwise she was being displayed in a box.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the game using transparencies on the original character images in the game. I'm also guessing since all imported images are Raster-12 maybe they can not have these transparencies???

What is your theory on why it behaves this way or anyway to get around it?

After I did get the added character to come up in the game and did reveal her...I snapped a picture. It looks like it was meant to be there, but the fact that it displays the box instead of the outline before and also that Wolverine is now called Shadowcat in the entire game makes this little mod a no go. I'm still having fun tinkering.

Original_Wolverine.jpg Replacment_Kitty.jpg 0615132059.jpg