(Topic ID: 177778)

Best candidate for new code?

By Osric

7 years ago


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  • 118 posts
  • 59 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 2 years ago by RGAires
  • Topic is favorited by 7 Pinsiders

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#58 7 years ago

Osric you have an STTNG which could definitely do with a little rebalancing away from the ridiculously lucrative video mode.

You also have a Junk Yard ... which is generally best run on prototype ROMs - but that excludes fixes of later code, and still needs some balancing or additions.

If you can test your stuff at home, it'll make it a hell of a lot easier. Especially for a first endeavour.

1 week later
#68 7 years ago

Iron Man would require new hardware for new code, as would all Sterns. Non-starter I'd imagine. Would have to be a full 2.0.

3 weeks later
#76 6 years ago
Quoted from master_of_chaos:

Best canditates are those, which are closest to be "done".
Less work, faster releaes. happier people.
ACDC - Cannon mode inserts, Devil Horn inserts , a little bit tweaking some modes.
Adding a mode when lower and upper PF are used at the same time.
Done !

All Stern games would require a full rewrite of everything, and new computer.

Unless someone leaks Stern's development tools / source code, no-one's going to be 'tweaking' their code.

#79 6 years ago
Quoted from Cheeks:

Same deal with the other games too. PPS won't let someone just edit the code, so anything here would be re-written. That's what makes all these requests for games that only need small fixes so funny. Why would someone like this re-write all the code just to make a small fix? They only things that would be worth the effort are games that require large changes or near complete re-writes of the rules.
None of it matters since the OP seems to have gone dark.

People can and have changed WMS code, without using FREEWPC or a totally new system (like BoP 2.0). If it's non-commercial no-one is ever going to be successfully pursued by PPS or anyone else for it.

The problem with Stern titles is that people in the community CAN'T work on it, without a full rewrite.

#82 6 years ago
Quoted from Cheeks:

But that's the point, he solicited ides in this thread to write new rules to a game and provide to others (presumably not for free).

Why on earth would you assume that he was undertaking a commercial venture?

#85 6 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

Pretty much the only people that have done that have been the original programmers. PPS can and has pursued people for releasing simple rom hacks. Rewriting from scratch via FreeWPC is more legal than hacking the rom, but you'll still get an angry letter if any of your dot animations look even vaguely similar

AFAIK only threats have 'worked'. Good luck to them trying to shut down a fair use hobby project with an author based outside the US.

#88 6 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

Yeah but people are not going to want to put 1000s of hours into it when they know they're going to get threats

OP isn't US based.

7 months later
#93 6 years ago

There's no need for a license for non-commercial hobby projects, which this is (I think?).

Re: STTNG the problem is that that the video mode guarantees relics every time once you've learned the order of the turns (which is the same every time). That's what then makes the wizard mode so lucrative.

Just making it 1 relic the first time, then other subsequent awards would totally change the balance of the game's scoring and probably make the game suddenly popular for competitive play.

It'd incentivise completion of other modes and make the game a lot more fun.

I'd say it'd be an ideal first project as you own the game, and it's a small amount of work for a big gain.

#96 6 years ago
Quoted from benheck:

TOM + new cabinet art + autoplunger + new code = Best pinball machine ever made.

I suspect that's basically the idea for the CGC remake.

#97 6 years ago
Quoted from Axl:

Pinsider soren made a new code for a lot of games including STTNG.
In this code version the video mode is scrapped.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/four-new-pinball-software-mods-dm-sttng-hs2-jy

I'm aware of it, but there's no need to scrap it. Just not to give relics after the first completion.

#107 6 years ago
Quoted from Mocean:

Thanks. I've gathered quite a few assets over the years and with endprodukts awesome Pinsound mix, there's lot to work with. I only recently decided to make a concerted effort to pull all of my random T2 sample code bits into a cohesive example for SkeletonGame, but really the goal is providing example code and not a CCC style project...
Needless to say, I agree that T2 is a perfect game to "Continue". It has a solid fan layout, and yet the rules are more "system 11 like" than many actual system 11 games. Also, despite some appalling prices recently, T2 is an inexpensive enough title that dropping the additional cash for a P-ROC, LCD, and controller PC still leaves you with plenty of cash compared to other games out there.

If you do decide to move ahead with it, if I were you I'd go with dots. High resolution 3D renders, especially those mimicking such an iconic franchise are going to be really difficult and time consuming to make them look good.

#111 6 years ago
Quoted from Mocean:

I appreciate the input, but whereas I agree about not going high resolution, I'm not going dots. Using pixels on the LCD to simulate dots turns a lot of pixels off, and as a result the overall image is darker.
A while back I spent a long time coming to grips with the idea that a display could not have dots and "still look like pinball" --We tried all manner of different dot outline masks to increase brightness and maintain the separation effect... With an already dark theme, it just makes the display appear lack-luster in person.
I assure you, when you're standing at the physical machine, you don't need the simulated dots that make it look like pinball
Later today I'll turn on the dots option and post some screens. It's a single line change. When you see it here and not on the machine, I wouldn't be surprised if you preferred the dots. It's the nature of how you're viewing it, I think.

Indeed, agreed re: the simulated dots. Hence why I think the mooted non-dots (high res) display mode for TBL will make it look much better, if it comes to fruition.

But you could use an LED DMD. Either PIN2DMD or pinballsp. It shouldn't take much to hook them up.

I'm not hung up on the dot look at all. Just I suspect it will be much less time consuming to do dot matrix type animations than animated 3D models. Also, if you bring others into the project, I think many more individuals are likely to be capable of producing decent dot art.

But maybe 3D is your thing

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