Alternate method of mounting the computer is to use hot glue for the mounting plate. No mess, no muss, no fuss!

Doesn't work so well for the aux scoreboard that I added; that I'm using C clamps for safety.
lorem ipsum was a slut.

http://www.dutchpinball.com/bop2/bop-manual-eu

Hell if I know! I just asked for the directions and was given the link.

It's pretty easy to change the music if you're so inclined; they're just wav files that are looped. Though I think you'd be doing a pretty grave disservice to yourself by changing them -- they're pretty darn good!

Don't know anything about your cab, but I respectfully and *strongly* disagree! I haven't seen a version of pinmame that doesn't seriously choke on CVSD playback. (Try starting funhouse to hear the worst example I can think of, or try to credit up CFTBL. Sounds like you're beating a woman underwater with a banjo. Ahhhh-blub-blub-blub... frank you!) The music sounds OK (pretty close) but even that isn't quite up to scratch and gets worse when doing an A/B test vs the original. Just hitting esc in the WPC menus in pinmame , the "dink dink dink" sound is played at the wrong tempo (too slow!) -- and there's nothing even going on then!

Don't get me wrong, it's good enough that a month after having BOP2, if I need to scratch the BOP1 itch I'll flip it over and play a couple of games. But it's not anywhere close to the same quality as the original.

Switch inputs do lag in 1.0 a bit; I'd guess roughly 50 to 100ms behind. The larger problem (for me) is the lock pulses are now too long; it invariably drops both balls when locking instead of only one. Messes up multiball start like crazy! (And makes multiplayer games kind of not work.)

P.S. Has it really been five years since a new release of pinmame???

Where do you get it from? Because on the official pinmame site, all that's available is 2.3, with no mention of anything else! ( http://pinmame.retrogames.com/downloads.html )

That's kind of why I added the PS on the end. I did check the official site and that's the only one that's up there, and no hint as to where a newer one can be found. (Can't fault me for not at least trying to be current!)

Couldn't find 2.6, but downloaded 2.5. Sounds unchanged from the the 2.3 version. Seriously, it takes just a second -- drop credits in and "thank you" sounds awful -- sounds like it's being said through cellophane. Sounds in general play too slowly (tempo). Music overall is off pitch (slightly low) and slightly slower tempo than a real machine.

(Your cab video, while making some allowances for cell phone microphone and what not, also has the same problems.)

It's good *enough* to not be worth the hassle to switch back & forth. But taken in totality pinmame's rendition is definitely a medium step down in the quality department when compared to the real mccoy. Not large enough to be worth the hassle of switching boards for a few games, but not minor enough to be in the let's-pretend-this-doesn't-really-exist category, either.

I'm just not getting that on mine, so I hate to speculate. My WAG is that it could be your switch is slower to rebound than mine, so then pinmame thinks the ball didn't eject correctly.

https://vimeo.com/118154838

(Vimeo says it'll be done processing in 35 minutes or so.)

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm *not* advocating that DP needs to do anything; this is clearly a pinmame issue (sounds identical when testing vpinmame on a PC). BOP1 is included for convenience and isn't DP's product, so not their problem in my mind. At the same time, I'm not willing to call a spade a heart, either; BOP1 functioning is good *enough*, which doesn't quite make it *good*, just... enough.

In the video you can also hear the lag. I have my switches mounted to the cabinet floor, so you can hear me "thumping" the switches moving around in the test menu, and see the lag between the switch contact and when pinmame does something. I don't know the cause nor the solution to that, but it doesn't seem to make much real world difference when playing. (By the same token, it might be the root cause of always dropping two balls out of the lock in bop1.)

So... (well first, thanks for laying out the explanation verbatim. Pretty much knew it, but it's nice to have a mental model confirmed!)

In the past how MAME has dealt with under-performing or difficult to emulate sound is to have a set of samples recorded directly from the original machine, and play those back whenever sound command X is triggered. If I (or someone) were to volunteer to generate a sample set, how hard would it be to hack into the pinmame code? That would take care of the lion's share of complaints with the sounds (in a nutshell, *everything* out of the CVSD); the rest of them (slightly too slow, slightly too low pitch, etc.) are in the wrong but completely tolerable category. (MHO, of course.)

AAAAND since BOP2 is an officially licensed product that already includes this data, it'd be fully legal out of the gate, too! So that's nice.

I must be missing it. All I can figure out how to do is download m1 (which doesn't support extracting from bop roms). Doesn't seem to be any links to pre-ripped sound packs, let alone anywhere to actually log in.

Not familiar with the amp's power saving features. (It's... it's... it's not for me.) If it's the type that actually shuts down when a signal isn't present then the effect of having it be on all the time should be really negligible. If it doesn't have that feature then it'll be continuously on. It's a class D amp, so that wouldn't be all that terrible; a smidge of power and heat would be kicked off but nothing major.

Monitor being on all the time should also be relatively negligible. It *does* have power management (a.k.a. "energy star") so it hibernates whenever it doesn't see a signal. Again a few parasidic watts wasted over time, but nothing all that big.

To really fix the "I want to be able to kill only from the wall switch" problem properly, you'd need to use a UPS that supports monitoring via USB. A monitored UPS will shut itself off once the computer signals that it's down, saving the rest of the battery. Cheapest I could find in a quick search is http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.aspx?sku=664730 . (Can probably find something somewhat cheaper if you looked for sales, but outside of a model year refresh blowout I wouldn't expect < $50.) It's way too much battery for what the computer actually needs, but they only make them so small with monitoring.

If you got a UPS without monitoring the UPS would have to fully discharge each time you killed the power. That'd lead to a UPS that lasted a month, two tops. (UPS batteries really don't like being deep cycled that many times!)

You're going to need a larger apron to fit a card that big.

Here's what I have on my game currently, which reflects my understanding of the rules so far.

http://pinballmafia.net/temp/bop2.0_1091b.pdf

Not really... I keep mine between 1-3 (...since I like having windows in my place... ) normally. I did try it all the way up to 10 with ear protection, didn't notice any distortion so the output seems to be pretty clean all the way up.

IMNSHO the point of beta testing is to report *directly to DP* what your issues are, so that they can fix them in advance before sending the software out to owners at large. Beta software is *test* software, and part of that idea is that you're not really supposed to talk openly about bugs found. (It's fine to discuss/verify in private with other beta testers, just not at large.)

I reported this bug (among others) to DP a few weeks ago, so I'm sure they're already aware of it.

(If it was general release software, then say whatever, wherever.)

I also find it strange that the game continues while you're in diagnostics.

Eh, Capcom did it way back when, not all that strange.

Not to mention you're playing on 5-ball! (BOOOOOOOOOOO! )

I'd love to say Hegge was cheating when he was playing my game. Sadly, nope. (He is ranked 31st in the world after all, so there is that.)

To me alpha/beta/gamma bugs all go under the general heading of "dirty laundry". In my mind, you can do whatever crazy whack-ass crap you want in alpha and beta, as long as it gets straightened out before general release all is forgiven. I view it as professional courtesy.

I don't know that I'd agree; how you run your game should be up to you. But it'd be nice if the website called out how many balls were in the game, just to make sure you're comparing apples to apples.

Right now I'm waiting for the next beta update before I play much more; I keep hitting a nasty bug that's totally wrecking my groove.

I don't even agree that any computer can be compromised. If you're sitting behind a router, and you we be if you're using wifi, no one can just get into your computer with malicious code unless you do something like browse the web or email etc.

Sure they can -- compromise another computer on the same network, such as your regular computer. That's penetration 101.

Put $1K in escrow, sign a damage and liability waiver and a notarized permission to hack, and I'll be happy to prove it to you.

Unless you're just talking shit, of course.

You are asking a person who works as an IT professional to commit multiple offenses of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. See http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030 . As this is my job I deal with this on a routine basis; there are ways to go about doing this without exposing myself to both civil and criminal liability. I am not willing to risk going to jail (and due to my occupation I will not get *any* leniency on the part of the court) nor am I willing to expose myself to civil penalties just to shout down a message board ignoramus. I laid out the terms necessary to protect myself, and you do not accept. (You writing a message saying "that's fine" is worth nothing.)

Nothing happens, and nothing ever will happen, without notarized waivers of damage and liabilities, waivers of any criminal proceedings under the computer fraud and abuse act (and any similar state acts), and without having the money in escrow. That's the way this is done regularly; you don't get to make up your own rules with respect to criminal (and civil) law. It's a whole stack of paperwork, and can be done, and I'm happy to do it. You aren't. Turns out when the rubber hits the road, you just want to waive hands at real consequences because a) you have no intention of paying b) have no idea what you're talking about c) it wouldn't be your butt on the line anyway. Not good enough. Do it the right way, or don't do it at all.

Yes. If you don't bother to transfer the metal backing plate to the new faces, and if the balls are in the holes when the face changes then it's possible for the ball (or balls) to slip into the head through the eye/mouth holes. If you transfer the backing plate from the original faces then that's impossible, but it doesn't look as good.

I didn't bother to transfer them on mine, knowing that this was possible upon a head positioning error. I did have it happen twice on bop 2.0, but it was a while ago. I wasn't able to reproduce a test scenario where it happens reliably so I didn't bother to report it, though I'm keeping an eye out for it. (I also couldn't tell you what exact software rev I was running at the time, either.)

This was documented by CPR when the repro faces first came out. Their advice was to transfer them over, or not if you don't mind living dangerously.

By that definition, I have the kit fully installed. But I can't flop the head and move it; have to remove the second monitor + mount before mine can be moved. And the ethernet cable, too.

You're on the right road, but nope.

How it works is there is an opto-isolator (4N25 - U7 & U8 on the WPC driver board) that's in parallel with the coil. (It's up high on the driver board; look for it on the schematics.) When you hit the button, it grounds both the opto-isolator's emitter and the coil. The opto-isolator's receiver is directly hooked into the switch matrix. The flipper doesn't have to actually move, but the power for the flipper does have to be engaged.

That kind of brings up an interesting issue; bop scores <= v1.101 really aren't comparable to bop scores > v1.101 . Reason being is multiball 2 is so much more hard to score points on (and once you finish multiball 1 you're locked into multiball 2 until you finish it). It's not that hard to just keep playing multiball 1 and grabbing supers over and over, which isn't even possible on v1.102+.

Still though, 400M... damn. 30 minute game, wow that's nuts.

Ghosting is an issue, buy ghost buster LEDs if you're doing it now. I see no difference in the helmet lights, but I always used incandescent bulbs there. (Those aren't on the light matrix anyway, completely different.)

I played around with it, but can't figure out what symbol generates reverse pads. (Would be helpful if you could see an existing level in the editor to start with, rather than having to hit every symbol on the keyboard to find out what they do.)

Ahhh, those weren't there when I was playing with it -- no wonder! I just hammered out every key on the keyboard. Found most of it on my own, just not everything.

I have both ghostbuster, non-ghostbuster, and incandescent lamps in mine, depending on the location. The extent of LED ghosting on WPC games is really dependent on where they are in the lamp matrix, but ghostbuster leds makes it a moot point. Mine ghosts on the 25K and 50K skill shot lamps, simply because that's where I have conventional LEDs.

(I used a total of eight different lamp & modifiers to light the backbox, FWIW. )

Ha, thanks. I was wondering how long it'd take someone to find that.

During MGC I used live as a way to surreptitiously check if my game was up or down. Rather than walking the entire length of MGC (which is a considerable distance!), I popped up the live page every so often in the booth. If it went too long without anyone playing / scores changing I'd take a walk and check in on it.

Hmmm, wonder which smart guy made that and sent it to you?

I disagree. Ever tried to set a custom message with coin door buttons? IT SUCKS OUT LOUD and takes *forever* because you have to scroll through every mother flippin' letter, a few punctuation marks, then every letter in lowercase. Now imagine all that plus every punctuation mark on the keyboard plus every numeral. Suckage on top of suckage on top of suckage doesn't make less suckage, it makes for misery.

Using the coin door buttons to enter SSIDs and wireless security settings is like using a pair of pliers to try and remove a lug nut. It's a bad idea and simply the wrong tool for the job. (A button to quick WPS setup would be a good compromise, IMHO.)

The computer has bluetooth, but mine was broken out of the box. (It'd kinda/sorta see things, but would fail to pair every time.) I have bluetooth dongles like sticks of gum so I threw one of them in a USB port and disabled the on-board BT. All has been well since.

I'm sympathetic and halfway agree with you. However at some point hammering a square peg into a round hole just doesn't make sense, and IMHO this is that point. Everything you need to be able to do to run the machine can be done via the service buttons -- live is extra. Nice, but still extra; if live isn't working the game still runs just fine.

YHO may vary.

I've gone and rendered the DP logo so it'll properly display on a betabrite. You're welcome.

dp_logo_betabrite.png