I didn't notice you posted updates here, too, until today.

I thought we'd be flooded with feedback once the first "alpha" in game full-color LCD display videos were posted... I stand corrected

We aren't going to quite the full resolution for a few reasons:

1. The cutout has to fit in the DMD/speaker panel, so it's twice as tall as a typical DMD, but still not the full height of the display (we are doing 2, instead of 4, but still not 16:9...we are 16:8)

2. I've hacked the framework to support higher res and full color, but native panel resolution would choke the processor. Hence we have settled for 480x240 and a nice retro look. To be honest we were always going with a retro look.

3. There's a mode to render virtual dots, but even without them, yes, it looks similar to the DP guys, just higher res, and more vertical space in general

Ha! My wife and I are rewarding Veronica Mars now and I've been thinking how much easier it is to pull video for Buffy. Veronica Mars is great, but sure doesn't lend itself to a pinball machine.... I've been cracking myself up thinking of modes, though. Bus Crash mode, for example...

I'm telling you, you gotta start watching Arrow. I'd make one of those after "High Speed 2K" ... Or along side it if you'd sign on for a T2, re theme. The basement is all full up

Hi Jim,

Funny you should mention the Xbox game. I spent a long while trying to find model rips from that game. The thought of pulling sounds hadn't even occurred to me! I'll check gamestop on my way home to see if they have a copy of it. As Nelly can attest to, while I've been making pretty good progress on the code, sound has been on my to do list, but absent for far too long...

Thanks Jim. If I can't find a copy I'll do just that. I'd like to avoid the extra noise that recompression will add, but that may be the only option. Does anyone even still sell xbox games?!

Hmmm. What to say? A lot of code but I'm not sure if a demo video would impress folks in it's current state. I hope the game play is improving on every successive update. Lots of new modes, skillshots, bonus count up. The VGA playback stuff continues to improve as I work on it. I'm a big fan of my new layered animated text, which you can see of animated GIF of, here:

http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1026.msg9926#msg9926

I have more framework updates involving transitions and asset loaders but that stuff is likely boring to you guys.

Audio: I've ripped some audio from the xbox games but I couldn't get the sound effects (in a slightly proprietary eurocom variant of adpcm) to play back properly. I'd originally thought the music would be perfect, but I think it's a little low-key (slow?) for the pace of the game as SoF is fast! If anyone has experience with adpcm and proprietary sound formats, please send me a PM. This reminds me I have to ship my extra xbox off to Nelly! I totally forgot.

I guess I should get the code in a more video friendly state soon. Maybe we should chat about that.

If you get bored with yours we could just retheme it... again. That's the advantage of my brilliant assets config file, right?

You're starting a new machine without me!? Dang.

I was hoping I could get you excited about one of my other projects to get you on the hardware side of those, too... The details of those themes are negotiable

I thought of you today when I hacked colors into fonts and then tore it back out for lack of code elegance.

I thought of you again when I finished making the multi line text markup support hdfont with color and borders. I then overplayed it onto an image, and bundled them into a panning layer. It was only when I was finished that I remembered our discussion about how some things are easier done in an image editor when no one would know the difference. That made me sad. I probably could have saved a few hours just putting the text directly on the background image and just panning that.

Ah well. The new intro should look good. I'll have Nelly post a video of it after he syncs his code (tonight?). Videos from my laptop screen are less impressive...

Ah, looks pretty good. Now that we have more people to thank, and Mark has changed his name again, I have to change that. I guess we'll have another video soon.

I guess we have to share some gameplay video soon, huh?

Not sure if you're commenting on a lack of love for Buffy or a strong love for SoF, but we do love SoF, too. There's a lot of machine in SoF and it has enabled a /lot/ of possibilities on the software side. We have a bunch of small additions to the traditional SoF hardware that I don't think have been revealed yet. Even without those features, it's just a fun machine to program.

I've been really blown away by the last few iterations of the playfield art and this last one is stellar. I hope I don't let folks down when they actually play the current version at expo...

Yeah the slayfield is a lot of fun to code for because the drop targets are able to be individually reset. It allows me to do things like "3 hits to knock down" by immediately resetting the target on the first two hits.

Each of the big bads actually has a unique drop target "sequence" and reset sequence (it's harder to hit the targets if the neighboring targets stay down). It's also hard to see with the current playfield setup, but we have a few different modes that have moving targets. Fun to code, if not for the ACRelay.

Thanks. Mine may be coming to the Pintastic show in New England this summer, but no promises. I spend all my spare time working on the software-side, so my physical build is months behind Nelly's.

Buffy is alive and well at expo and, even though I couldn't be there, I've been updating the code remotely --sending new code and bug fixes to Nelly as he sends me issues that are being uncovered given all the play testing it has been getting.

To everyone who has stopped and played: thank you! You're helping us make the game better through feedback. If the game crashed while you played it on an earlier day of expo, most of those issues have been worked out. All sorts of issues have bubbled to the surface and many of them I've been able to pop.

Here's a fun example: Nelly sent me a bunch of new video clips to use and I converted and added about 900mb of video (uncompressed) literally the day before expo started. That first day we discovered that the necessary pre-loading of all the video really breaks down when you hit the 2gb of memory limit for 32-bit Python(!). He bought more ram while I re-processed about 12 of the largest videos to drop their frame rate and we were back in business.

I really wish I was there at Expo, but having a constant stream of text messages with pictures of crash logs is almost the next best thing

Thanks everyone!
- Michael

Thanks guys! I'm glad to hear the machine was well received and that by and large most people had a pretty good experience with it. A lot of issues have been squashed thanks to the logs you guys generated. I really do appreciate every play that we got at expo.

My heart goes out to the player who was having an awesome game (beat training level 5, collected two weapons, rescued some scoobies, completed VAMPIRE), and made it up to the slayfield to battle the first boss only to have the game crash on him --he did, however, /finally/ reproduce a very elusive bug and his log allowed me to finally track it down and squash it!

The magnet has been in Dave's machine for a while but I only wrote the code that controlled it a day or two before expo. The intent for that magnet is fairly different than the way it behaved at expo (and I'm sure we'll be adding more of an initial delay on the magnet pulse so it brings the ball back toward the target and releasing it sooner (to flick the ball a bit more) instead of holding it and dropping it SDTM! Not being there I didn't see it send the ball stdm and I didn't look at any log that didn't end in a crash but I guess we can start analyzing the last few events before the balls end. Awesome!

Anyway, thanks again!
- Michael
(Code monkey)

Videos look great.

For the record, I made up that 60% number. If I were a major manufacturer I would have released today and used the next year to send revision updates

The plans are crazy ambitious as always and I'm already sweating bullets to get things done in time. If not, I'll be coding all day while I'm there

Not sure when Nelly's planning to officially release teasers, but let's just say that I've had to go back to developing against Visual Pinball because there are So many playfield tweaks, mechs, etc. that my SoF has fallen seriously far behind the "next version" of Buffy.

It's pretty dope.

Sure. My code is derived from Mark S (Snux)'s Arduino code for his F-14 second Sortie. My interface cleans up the pyprocgame integration so that you define a wsRGBs section in your machine yaml file and the parser pulls out the Arduino number and the default color (similar to marks)

Under the covers, I changed things so the wsRGBs get treated as real first-class objects in the pyprocgame code, and these objects work just like lamps (and actually get added to the lamps array), but also have two very cool methods: set_color(letter) --where the letter is a short hand for one of handful of colors (eg, W for white or M for magenta), or set_color_rgb, which sets a 64 bit color (2 bits red, 2bigs green, 2bits blue).

These rgb lamps, when present, otherwise behave exactly as regular pyprocgame lamps do. They can be enabled, disabled, or scheduled. On the pyprocgame/Python code side I wrote a threaded client to do the usb sending of commands, so there's virtually no impact on game loop rates.

The difference is that when their instructions are encountered, the messages are sent via usb to a Teensy 3.1 with an OctoWs2811 "add on" running custom code that decodes the lamp index, 64bit color, and schedule, and updates the lamps.

The teensy is amazing for this task as it can run the ws281x leds via DMA (Direct Memory Access), so the teensy's cpu is totally free to deal with usb messages and color decoding.

I'm happy to share the code for all of this. Most of it has already been shared, but I haven't shared my 64bit color stuff with anyone (other than another project). If you want the code or more details just fire off a PM.

It sounds more complicated than it is, really.

You can read the whole crazy process to improve this code and the capabilities in this thread, here:
http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?topic=1239.msg13518#msg13518

If I don't need to come there, and you want to buy me a P^3, we can talk.

Pretty sure I can spot all of them... Wait, I bet I'm not allowed to play.

Personally, I think SoF is a pretty great game. As for the price getting out of control for this title, that all happened well after Nelly decided to use this title for the project (and thankfully well after he and I each managed to snag ours).

What I will way about SoF when you play it stock and really get to live with it for a while, it can start to feel like a three trick pony: Mini-PF, AVENGER, and Titans-lane multiball (and the multiball is just the first two over again). The loops are fun, but they don't really add much. The top center ramp has the physical capability to do a lot with its diverters, but doesn't really in practice. Overall SoF could use more flow and better rules.

And honestly, these last round of changes that we hashed out for the playfield (and Nelly has bravely and miraculously made a reality) really bring a different feel without fundamentally throwing out what makes SoF so great. Coupling the playfield changes with the new code, a player has a lot more to do when playing.

We think they are really awesome changes, and are looking forward to putting it out there at expo and finding out what everyone else thinks.

I'm hoping to impress everyone with the new code (which is already quite a bit better than last year's showing). Much like Dave, it feels like I'm running out of time, but we shall see.

We are in the same boat with a few of the playfield changes. At a minimum, we have added two up/down posts that are new and we need to refine their timing to not destroy the flow. We know they work, and I thankfully had the forethought to make these values easy to to tweak, but they will surey need tweaking.

Having more than one person on this project makes it easier by far, but having the code and machine in different places makes testing quite a bit harder. My "Swords of Buffy" (SoB) is many steps behind Nelly's at this point, so testing is done by a combination of pure pyprocgame simulator, Visual Pinball, and on rare occasion actually using my SoB machine. Unfortunately all the tests end with sending it along with fingers crossed...

Anyway, I have massive respect for your Kugler's pin. Doing the whole machine yourself, design, build, and software, is a crazy task. The fact that you've started your second machine is a real testimony to the hardness, and carbon core of your balls.

Or with the head down, in the back of Dave's Jeep on the way to expo...

Im just kidding. The code won't be ready by the time it's loaded into the car.

And I would have gotten away with it, too if it wasn't for those pesky kids...

three_days.png

Thanks to everyone who played the game this evening!!

I've coded 10 changes/tweaks this evening based on feedback and observations. Man. I'm tired!

If you're here on Friday, take another spin

We will post some videos later today. If you're at expo, please post your photos and videos, too!

Also we noticed lots of folks walking past, staring at the machine, appreciating it, and maybe thinking the game is there just to show off as a museum piece..?

You can play Buffy --that's why it's here! Please feel free to come play!

All of us over in the P-ROC area have our games here for people to play. If you want to play a second game and no one is waiting, go for it!

Okay... today we will try to remember to take video

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Thank you all for the kind words about the code and display.

To be clear: the game would not be what it is without the contributions that both Dave and I have made to the project. It really has been an excellent partnership. Yes, it is true that this was our first meeting in person, and Dave is a super awesome guy. If you played Buffy at Expo and enjoyed the build quality, the awesome flow changes, or any of the physical aspects of the machine, then Dave is the guy who deserves all the credit. My Swords is basically unplayable at this time because I've not been able to keep up with his layout changes. I do a lot of testing against FakePinProc (the PyProcGame simulator), Visual Pinball (with its virtual P-ROC bridge), and sadly just sending code to Dave and crossing my fingers. If you haven't figured it out by now: not only was this my first Expo, this was the first time I got to actually play the physical Buffy machine that I've been coding all this time. Dave's constant pursuit of perfection is reflected in every inch of that machine.

Technically, I've been working on the project for just over two years; the code surely isn't done (our plans are even more ambitious than what you saw), but I will say the code has come a long way, and I am very happy with our showing at Expo. I felt like a very proud parent watching others play the game, and had some sense that this must be what it is like when a game is on test for the "real pinball guys". I was coding like crazy over the weekend trying to respond to issues that were discovered during play, and trying to improve the experience. It was amazing to see players confused by features that seemed like a good idea, or completely unable to complete shot sequences that we thought weren't too hard. Lots of code changes followed, and I think those who played it multiple times over the course of the weekend were able to see the progression.

I really have to thank everyone who came out and played the game. I can't convey just how much we appreciate the feedback from players. Sadly there seems to be no way we could ever actually produce this game, so people playing it at Expo is the only way we get to share it with others. Thank you for your feedback. Expo was easily one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had on a software project, and that's not possible without players who are willing to give it a chance and share feedback, even if negative.

I'd also like to publicly acknowledge Gerry for making this happen. I don't just mean inviting us into his area to bring the game, but for his work on the P-ROC that made all of this possible. I frequently say just how amazing his P-ROC is from a hardware perspective, but working with it for the past few years has connected me to a community of super awesome P-ROC'ers and homebrew pinball folks who I had the pleasure of finally meeting and hanging out with over the weekend. What a bunch of super cool people.

Anyway, some folks say this wasn't a great year for Expo, but I honestly don't know how it could have been any better!

- Michael

lol. SoB exists in every timeline

No joke. Thank you John. Even though I've never met you or spoken to you, and I've alwayd hidden behind Dave to send some pretty extreme changes in direction your way (never your fault, always due to our "evolving" vision of the layout --the craziest of those being my insane, "hey, let's completely swap where all the inserts are" right before last year's expo)... Anyway, I love the look of the playfield. You've done great things with it and it would not be the same game without it.

Okay, back to figuring out which of my million pinball ideas I want to run down next. Expo leaves your head just swimming with ideas.

Trying to get a machine to Pintastic 2025 in western Massachusetts seems hard enough... and I only live like 40 minutes from there!!

He played for a while and chatted for a bit. Anyone know who that is? Very cool guy, but like a dummy I forgot to ask his name...

Yes! That's right. Thanks again, Mark.

Audits from expo. Number of plays:

Thursday: 141
Friday: 117
Saturday: 358
Sunday: 22
----------------
Expo Total: 638 plays

Not bad given the limited hours of the vendor hall.

Ian was the first to get the secret Lionman Multiball, right after I added it to the code (and failed to get it myself)!

Not too shabby!

I hope you play it there, too.

This year got out of hand but the plan is to have it there next year.

Thank you for bringing it home!!

I had no idea what you went through at the border until I heard the episode... Yikes. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

The machine is even more beautiful in person than it looks in pictures. Dave has done a masterful job on this machine. I could probably shave in the reflection of the playfield's clearcoat. I owe him a lot of code, and there aren't enough thanks in the world.

I've been silent as I've been busy working on code. It sure is easier to test code when you have a physical machine to run it on!! I'm overhauling the guts to run on SkeletonGame (which seems fair, since I wrote it to make other's lives easier coding games, I might as well get the benefits of it too), and SkeletonGame is getting a lot of updates as I go through the process, which should help others who are making games on it.

I'm sure we will post details about the rules and the shot map in the run up to expo.

Hush multiball has been on the list since the very beginning.

An unpleasant amount of my summer was wasted to some very serious real-life unpleasantness. That said: yes. there will be new Buffy code on display.

I'm also psyched that there are going to be 3-5 other games running SkeletonGame/PyProcGameHD in the Multimorphic booth. Without being overly technical, I think it's fair to say that a bunch of the "vertebrae" that make up SkeletonGame were yanked out of Buffy's spine ... No. That sounds gross. Bits of Buffy are in other games in the booth..? No. Still gross.

Ah forget it. Just stop by and play our games!!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to play today!

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Thanks to everyone who continues to stop by, play, and give us feedback. I'll post audit counts soon but they're in play almost constantly. The machines are getting quite the work out!

And here's Jack Danger playing some Buffy.

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Hey Tommy, it was nice to see you again and to hear your kind words in the most recent episode of TFP. I really appreciate you hauling #2 out to me.

Also, I really enjoyed that episode --especially Taylor's point about the financial gap within this hobby, which has stuck with me since I listened two days ago. Great stuff as always.

Well, I was there last year when Nelly received a truly offensive offer and he was surprisingly civil in the phase of such outlandish audacity. Hint: it was measured in multiples of the value of a SoF and the multiplier might not have exceeded 2...

Well, this was last year and I didn't base it on the current pinside SoF value, using that current value the offer was probably 1.8-1.9x that.

It was laughable to watch someone try to seriously sell an offer that was less than a new stern. It was the old, "I'll take that off your hands"-gem.

Okay. Enough negativity. We'll post some new content about game rules and the shot map (compared to SoF) ASAP.

Real life stuff has been keeping Nelly busy, but even still, he and his father are hauling their two Buffy's down to TPF!

I'm headed down as well, so the whole team will be there.

So, when you want to praise the quality of the build and geometry changes, you can congratulate @nelly. When the code blows up, that's on me

See you all soon!

It's extremely like Buffy #2 will be at Pintastic

Also, TPF is less than a week away and I can't stop coding. What the hell am I thinking!?

And yet, showing off new code is too much fun. Here's hoping I'm not flying too close to the sun

When I'm too lazy to go down to the basement to test, this is how the sausage is made:

image (resized).png

There's some fun stuff in the new code, and I put some secret stuff in there too.

Hope everyone enjoys it this weekend!

So ...this happened.

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Can't wait to see who Dave gets as a programmer!