Big Bang Bar
Capcom, 1996
Wizard Blocks
Williams, 1999You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider Compy.
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Quoted from Mr68:A friend of mine has 3 of them in his private collection or at least he did. Haven't talked to him in a long time and not sure what the status is.
He still has them. He was very helpful in allowing me to document his when I was building mine, also enjoyed exchanging a lot about the design history on the game with him. They work very well for how far along in the design process they were, and I rest easy knowing they're with the current owner and in good hands!
Quoted from Tommy-dog:There was some chip on that CPU board that could not be reproduced. I do remember Gene saying something about it. Also there are different Capcom CPU board revisions and the ones that work in a game like Pinball Magic may not work in BBB (due to the software revision of that custom chip). Gene had several CPU boards that just would not work. He asked me to take them back to my shop and test them in other Capcom games. The Flipper Football that I had at the time did work with one of Gene's boards so I swapped him out and give him an extra CPU board so he could have built one additional BBB game. It was a long time ago so I forgot the details.
Good memory. The chip you're referring to is U16 on the main CPU board which is a fused FPGA. From extensive reverse engineering for Kingpin, this acts like a multiplexing chip and handled various DMD and matrix strobing operations so that the CPU had more free interrupt space to do "fun" things.
The fuse prevents you from being able to dump the FPGA contents, which makes reproduction a significant pain. At this point, it's much easier to just reimplement its behavior by looking at its inputs/outputs and replicating its functionality based on the operational theory that we know about what it talks to.
Of course, I have time and retrospect on my side. Given where Gene was at in 2006 and the lack of technical resources, it would've been very very difficult.
Quoted from Mr68:For the Kingpin remake I'm pretty sure Circus Maximus is using P-ROC and I'll guess, Williams mechs. That's what I *THINK* but maybe Compy would be kind enough to chime in on that.
I'm on the list of Kinpin buyers and actually prefer that they use P-ROC. I don't care about original parts, I just want the game and upgraded to modern works for me.
Good question! Correct, we use standard off the shelf parts where available. The core of the system is a P-ROC based board, and the game logic is emulating the MC68000 boards in the system for the original code. The PC is an embedded linux system just like CGC/Stern/others use. We did use Capcom flipper assemblies which are PWMed single wound coils. The timing and power characteristics of double wound coils are a bit different, but it's something we're testing with just to make sure that everything is readily available and servicable.
I've got a Capcom test fixture that I made on the desk behind me, and I'm constantly in admiration of the engineering feats they had made. I think the same way about the Pinball 2000 board system. However when we were doing the technical scope for this game, I'd calculated that it was much faster to just emulate and rewrite all of the driver board logic. Basically what you see on the running Kingpins from CMG is about 6 weeks of software engineering performed without physical access to the game over a facetime connection to an iPhone sitting on the playfield.
Definitely a fun project to be involved with, and seeing the game boot into the attract mode for the first time was a "eureka" moment for sure.
-- Jimmy
Quoted from Rondogg:I always assumed Jersey Jack was influenced by Gene's BBB project and eventually built his own machine/company when he saw it could be done. I have no other proof of this other than my faulty memory of the RGP days. Does anyone know how much truth there is in this theory, if any?
I've heard other people that documented the entire BBB process say that exact same thing. Like or hate Gene, he definitely validated the market and the fact that it could be done.
Quoted from LTG:Kingpin was more developed than BBB. The ones most people have played didn't have the ramp optos and other things not working.
The one I had here, we got everything working. The game is a blast.
LTG : )
Quoted from swampfire:I think Kingpin is way more fun than BBB.
I agree with you both, but I'm biased. Kingpin when it's dialed in is a fast shooting game. Those Mark Ritchie ramps are super fun to feed combos on. The opto spinners are a key feature on this game... they spin for days.
There are some definite rough spots and "Pfutz"isms in the game code, but those can be ironed out. I remember in one mode at first, we kept checking to see if the ramp optos were broken because we weren't getting any sound or score events on the spinner optos. Turns out, that stuff just wasn't baked into certain modes. Generally we have every physical feature on the game react in some way when it's hit (even if it's just a sound call, flash or a meager point value). They just hadn't gotten to it yet.
The sudden death/weakening flipper challenge at the end is fantastic. I liken it to the "Assault the Vault" feature on SafeCracker. It's just a fun little piece of dessert.
The orbits and the drop targets are great when you're spelling out KINGPIN with the shooting mobster animations from behind the targets you hit. It's just a fun and silly game package.
Quoted from Mr68:Don't see how that could have been possible as the rings and tube are under the ramp. Maybe they had a different design at one point or you're thinking of something else?
BTW. The orange plastic on the tube dancer was a part of the ring kit mod.
[quoted image]
The only issue I remember is that airballs off of the ramp would potentially hang a ball there indefinitely (with the ball sitting on top of the tube and between two of the rings). Definitely no concern under the ramp, even with "tubular flaccidity" 
That said, the rings look badass.
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Victoria, BC