So I got bored at some point and decided to take on a new project with my P-ROC. I'd mostly been using it to noodle around with developing an enhanced ruleset for my DM, then I thought, it's a widebody with a fairly action packed theme... what if this had been done as a Pin2000 concept? So quickly I put together a list of requirements to roughly attempt a mockup...

First, it had to be fast. Second, it had to be extendable. Third, it had to be widely supported to ensure that the development wouldn't be a total pain. So I decided to do the concept in .NET primarily because of the widely supported XNA framework. It was also easy to develop a game sketch that performed very reliably in XNA. The PyProcgame framework that is available for P-ROC development made some of the most complex developmental tasks regarding pinball pretty trivial... you had a mode stack, switch handling and much of the plumbing there for your game... you just had to write the rules logic and any logic that controls custom mechanisms. So to make my life a tad more seamless, I ported the entire pyprocgame framework over to .NET (those of you who wish to take advantage of the framework can do so at github.com/compy/netprocgame)

So after I had developed and ported over the essentials that make up the main framework, I began working on the main game logic. I decided that I didn't want to mirror the glass or tint it very much (if at all) because I wanted the main playfield to be visible. With the ability to control the GI with the P-ROC, I could control which sections of the playfield lit up and whether or not I needed to use those capabilities to overpower the monitor.

I had also decided that the monitor should augment the gameplay, not replace it. So there won't be any long drawn out movie sequences that hold the ball up for extended periods. I didn't want to drastically change the gameplay, so I was going to port over a lot of the existing modes with a few new ones.

Here's a list of some of the modes:
-- Car Chase Mode: Hit the cars to begin the mode. Shoot the car chase ramps sequentially, after 4 shots, the right ramp divertor opens, shoot the ball up the right ramp, a lightshow plays, movie quotes can be heard, and a jackpot is lit. The claw automatically releases the ball here.
-- Explode Mode: Explode mode uses the monitor to project explosives on the playfield. Hitting these explosives awards a set number of points. Doing so in shorter time intervals awards more points. Certain objects are randomly placed to add power-ups, bonus multipliers and such (visible on the heads-up display at the upper left corner)
-- Capture Simon Mode: Hit lit shots in a certain time interval to capture simon, collect a mystery item and be awarded a jackpot.
-- Museum Shootout Mode: Hit suspects projected onto various portions of the playfield. Avoid hitting civilians. Hitting a civilian docks points from the score. Headshots earn more, and a headshot is any shot that goes from a flipper to the projected target without hitting any intermediate switches. Ricochets earn less points, and those are any hits that hit an intermediate switch first. You are also limited to 10 shots per flipper, but can gain more by hitting bullet items randomly projected.
-- ACMAG Mode: Hit the jet bumpers to increase ACMAG power to 100%, or start ACMAG from the claw. Repeated shots to the center ramp award very little, but blowing up other items with the ACMAG award more points.

Completing MTL increases the bonus multiplier (up to 5X)
The retina scan increases in value and awards the full 5-10-15 million every 3 shots consecutively. Completing the 3rd retina scan accepts the scan and begins museum shootout mode.

The multiballs for the most part are the same, but the claw is used as a captive lock on the playfield. Each multiball increases the number of balls in play, so you won't always get a 5 ball multiball, and only one jackpot is lit at a time. A certain number of shots must be completed to light the next jackpot, so this is a lower scoring game. You won't get 20 million just for shooting the ball into play.

Another notion is the concept of 'power ups' and achievements. These can be pawned for a bonus at the end of the game if not used. These power-ups include:

Extra ball -- You already know what this is.
Bonus Multiplier -- Again, you know what this is.
Call For Backup -- When draining, you can double-tap the left handle button with this power-up to launch a ball back into play. If you're currently in a mode, this can launch another ball into play where hitting a certain number of targets is more beneficial, this is good since there will be a higher chance of hitting those targets.
Smart Bomb -- Kills anything standing on the playfield (except civilians)
Glow Rod -- Increases the killing power of each target shot. Keep in mind that using this power-up can be beneficial, but shooting bad shots with this power up enabled can disable GI lights in the section that you hit, making the game harder.

There will be more power-ups and things, and I'm looking for ideas, so please feel free to suggest some!

So far, I've gotten the basic OS and framework running with the physical mechanics control and display system. Here you can see the HUD in action as well as some of the basic mode code:

I like this idea! I'll have to whip up some sort of animation for the ice! I like the idea that certain areas like flippers could be frozen... show the little blue orb dropping and the component freezes. Sounds like a good way to mess with the player too

Hey! I share the same opinion of P2K. I like it, I'm intrigued by the technology. Right now the monitor is mounted on a test bracket but I have a design that sits right on the backbox hinges and rests on the siderails. The boards are relocated to the bottom of the machine and covered (still attached to the ground strap). A P2K head wouldn't work here since its a widebody machine. The LCD is a 26" Hanns-G display. It has worked wonderfully compared to the 17 inch that I had before. It covers the playfield width almost exactly (we're talking 1/8 in. not covered).

To those who asked about making the software open source, there are a couple of things that myself and my lawyer would have to consider since it is a patented piece of technology. Although I am not going to sell anything or make a dime off of it, things get hairy when you enable people to infringe on patents and other things. So I would have to clear things legally before I open sourced the P2K code. The NetProcGame framework *is* open source, however. But the implementation (which marries the display engines and game logic) is where the magic happens. After things are legally cleared (if they are cleared), you can find that code on GitHub (github.com/compy)

Any original sounds used in this reproduction were pulled using M1 and the Pinmame ROMS. This is fairly trivial when you get down to it. The M1 player and BridgeM1 provide a nice GUI interface to navigating and exporting the sounds. Each one had to be clipped and normalized, but overall it was pretty easy.

I'm a FOSS guy for the most part (except where I make my living), so I fully intend to open source the code. (I can't include sound samples or anything of the sort)

Haha, when I either design the cab and make it reproducible, or find a local CNC shop in the Athens/Atlanta, GA area, then I'll give you a shout The biggest pain was moving the entire boardset.

Sweet! Thanks for the link! I shot him an email, so we'll see what he can offer! My big thing here is mounting the head on the existing backbox hinges and designing a "foot" system that rests on the side rails. This prevents me from having to bolt into the cabinet and I can revert it to stock if need-be. Nice and convertible.

LOTS being done currently. I'm preparing the machine for Atlanta PinSwap (local show) in April. So right now I've got the playfield out of the cabinet and have relocated all the boards to a housing assembly mounted on the back.

I'm also working with Greg Butcher to get a P2K head made for a widebody and a 26 or 27" monitor. So lots of prep work going into the hardware and software aspects of things.

I've also changed the code over from native Windows to Linux code, and I'm using Panda3D so I can achieve better effects with less effort (not to mention it'll run on mostly any OS. Major plus!)

Since the current machine is disassembled, I'm doing most of the work in a pinball simulator that I can use to emulate the WPC/P-ROC architecture. I can control switch events with the keyboard and make sure things are tweaked before sending code to the machine.

Right now I'm working on the skill shot. The idea is to make the skillshot a bit easier since the ball doesn't always make it around to the left side flipper to shoot the ramp. Currently, I am thinking of having a bouncing box (like a glow orb used in the glow rods in the movie). If you launch the ball at the right time such that it hits the box at its lowest point (over the rollover), you're awarded a mystery award. With each ball, the timing on that skillshot changes. This is similar to what is done in BSD.

I hope to have video once its done!

Cabinet and playfield preparation:

I may do the same! Great idea there! I'll let you know how it works out if I go that route.

I've been quite pleased with the reflection from the LCD on the glass, so yeah, I agree it works well! The plan right now is to use a caseless design for the PC so it can be mounted to the back door hinge of the head unit. The footprint is pretty small. The PSU is what would take the most room. Even then, I could mount that next to the vent holes at the top of the head. I just have to wait for Greg to get back with me so we can hash out the details of the new mounting scheme.

If there's anything you guys want to know, just ask! This stuff is a blast!

-- Jimmy

Those kinds of decisions would have to be left until after the entire BoM is seen. The big issues obviously are licensing (movie assets) and patents with Pinball 2000. If this was an unlicensed theme, it'd be a bit easier. Provided these things could be worked out, I could see how feasible it'd be to implement this sort of thing into a kit. You have to keep in mind you have to essentially reconfigure the ENTIRE machine in order to make this work, and there are multiple suppliers involved. I'd have to make sure Greg could keep up the work in manufacturing head units, then PinballControllers.com supplies the boards, DELL/shuttle/whatever would supply the PC components, and then I'd have to come up with a unit that could house the boards. There's a few things to consider!

Either way, I'm having to do most of the heavy lifting myself, so graphics, sound and game logic are all being done at different points in the development cycle. If anyone has ideas/help/suggestions, pitch in! This is very much a fun thing and it'd be cool to see your ideas implemented in the game!

If anything, I'd plan to release the software free and open source, so you could build the components yourself. The hardware control bit is probably the least painful of the entire process (nowadays at least).

-- Jimmy

Most of the breakdown has been posted here: http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?board=24.0

Code and such will actually be following. I'm just trying to get things pretty cohesive in the implementation before releasing that code. It'd all be open source though. Most of the backend is in python.

The control system is nothing more than the P-ROC. The P-ROC is connected straight to the WPC driver board and fliptronics/aux boards. That piece is pretty much drop in. It allows the python game framework (pyprocgame) to communicate over serial USB to the board and pulse drivers and such. This is the same control system being used by Predator, Cactus Canyon Continued, etc.

If you have any other development questions, I'd be happy to share!

Started shopping out the top of the game today with the VERY SIGNIFICANT help of my friend mkgort! He brought all of his tools over to my house and we tore into the playfield. I mainly just wanted to get the top of the playfield playing nicely and looking good so I could get the game back into the cabinet with the boards in their new location (mounted completely behind the cabinet). The playfield looks great, and there's some finishing work to do, then its back to software! We'll be building the head unit here before long and then the game will REALLY take shape. I'm thinking silver t-molding around the head for that "industrious look" that DM has

All in all, things are going well, and the system booted up just fine after re-assembly on our software system!

Still have to finish things up on the PF... Acmag, wireforms, etc. But things came out great!

Major thanks to mkgort for helping out AND even providing beer among various other tools that made things much easier. He just wanted to come up and see what I was working on, hopefully he won't run for the hills

More updates as they come! Back to software-land (woot!)
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Yeah, that double reflection problem isn't nearly as bad in person. I'm aware of the half silvered glass they used, but I need to find a shop around here that could do something like that. If this weren't a widebody machine, I would have just purchased some P2K glass

So the head has been made for the DM2000! Major thanks to my friend MKGort who just got involved! He reached me here on pinside as a local pinhead and found out what I was doing, next thing I know, he's going full force into creating an arcade cabinet head and such for me! So major props to Matt and his girlfriend Eve and our friend Mike for putting this thing together in record time and getting it screen printed before I even knew what was up!

Next week, Chrome T-molding should be in! Then the head should be ready to mount! The translite should also be in within the next couple weeks (mostly the same translite, just sized down).

Things are coming together and this project is a lot of fun! Again, this shows you some examples of just genuinely great people in the hobby and on Pinside!

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Looking good Mameman, but a tad late. I remember trying to get with you several months ago and things kinda fell through. I love your work, but our cabinet has been built! No doubt this could prove useful in future projects, though! I appreciate you taking the time to showcase relevant work in this thread!

-- Jimmy