Please get this done, so I’ll stop getting emails about hologram MODs

FYI - I direct everyone your way. Nobody is rooting for you more than me...... now hurry up

No mas!

I think not, but how would I know

If it was all about the money, he’d be better off making LED eyed action figurines for - fill in the blank.

Technical MODs are cool, but they are very time consuming to make and support. Plus, no matter what he comes up with there will be a vocal minority that isn’t satisfied with the product.

I think people should be happy someone is putting in the effort to develope a solution. Trust me he won’t get rich making these; if that were case someone else would have never stopped producing them.

Best of luck PinballSP. My only advise is this - stop posting until it’s done. In my experience I found it started to have a negative impact.

I’d post something showing the MOD in action when it’s done. The more he posts while in development the more people, typically the ones that won’t purchase anything anyway, will demand more elaborate features/functions etc. I found it to be counter productive to post updates when I was in this game.

I got all sorts of emails asking for this and that and once it was all said and done the majority of the petitioners never purchase a MOD anyway.

Agreed. I just get a kick out of all the posts from guys saying this MOD will put PinballSP’s grandchildren through college

Have you thought about putting the monitor/TV on the cabinet floor? The design is easier and you won't be adding weight to the bottom of the playfield. I looked at putting the screen on the bottom of the playfield originally as well, but it was cumbersome and a pain to install.

Regarding shipping, I was able to package everything in a 10x10x10 inch box, weighted about 8lbs in total. That of course didn't include the TV, but I found most people wanted to buy their own monitors.

Just my 2 cents, carry on.

Man I sure am glad I quit making these.

Every once in a while, when I’ve had a couple beers and I’m feel good, I think about making some more Creech mods. Then I come to this thread and sober up quickly

What type of craft beers do you brew?

My favorite beer is Franziskaner, but any type of Hefeweizen will do

You guys know your beer over there

More than I can drink.

Yeah, it’s not like the OP would post developmental pictures of his product in someone else’s thread.

I guess all is fair in the brutal cutthroat world of creature hologram modding

No, the sides of the TV monitor were not visible on mine (what you see in that picture is the black paper shroud mounted on the bottom of the playfield). I used a 17” TV monitor for exactly that reason, which is why I mounted the TV to the cabinet floor. The bottom of the playfield is pretty congested, so you have to use a much smaller screen if you want to mount the screen to the playfield.

Personally, I never liked the viewing angle (with the smaller screen) or the idea of the extra weight on the bottom of the playfield.

By putting the screen on the cabinet floor, I was able to better emulate the original hologram.

Yes

Looking good.

We looked at utilizing switch triggers. The problem was that the RPi couldn’t scan it’s GPIO fast enough to register switch hits repeatably. FYI - we were scanning at 2 to 3 milliseconds. Maybe the newest RPi can run at a faster scan rate?

Regardless of what you use to trigger the videos, CFTBL supports mode stacking. If you don’t have a priority list for your videos, the screen will be flipping back-and-forth between videos constantly when a good player is on the machine. Even a one second delay will be very distracting. This is why we slowed the MOD down to improve the overall experience during gameplay.

I’d highly recommend you work on the code and see how the MOD functions during gameplay before you make any more videos. You may find yourself running into many of the same situations we did and you will have to compromise accordingly.

With that said, your artwork looks fantastic.

I think he'll finish it; he just isn't worried about anybody else's timetable.

What will be more interesting, is to see how many people actually buy one once it's available.

My comment was directed at any specific person.

FYI - I quit making these when the demand dwindled drastically after my 3rd production run. I had a lot of interest on the forum, but when it came time to purchase..... well that was a different story.

And before anyone posts or PMs me...

NO, I’m not making any more of these.

Nobody should be spouting off about the purity of pinball, especially when the examples given are of others that have no issue stealing their competitor's IP - what a joke.

If you don't think PinballSP will finish the MOD, fine - blast away. He's opened himself up to the criticism by posting here on PinSide; that's part of what happens when you transition from a "hobbyist" to a "hobby vendor." The part I find so humorous, while following this thread, is that most of the whiners in here have zero interest in the actual MOD; they just like hearing themselves type.

At least this guy is generating his own artwork (financing it on his own dime) and developing a unique design/solution for the application. Will he ever finish it? Who the hell knows, but at least he's having fun tinkering with a pinball project. If anything, the thread is throughly entertaining to follow

Wow, I’m getting excited now.

The mod is as much for bystanders (maybe more) as it is for players. I always got a kick out of people’s reactions when they played my CFTBL.

With that said, I ultimately ended up keeping my mod in hologram mode (less videos), just enjoyed the game play more.

I'll be listing a CFTBL for sale next week. The game includeds an NOS hologram as well as the PMD MOD (uninstalled). I bought the hologram to make the creature video for the "Hologram" Mode option on the MOD. After shooting the video, I boxed the hologram back up. Just installed it in the machine to sell it.

My MOD intercepts signals from the lamp matrix. Using the audio board would have been a better approach, just didn’t think to do that. Keep in mind the MOD was originally intended to just replace the hologram, which is why I started with the lamp matrix. The hardware was 90% designed before we expanded the video capacity.

We tested the switches, but found the RPi to read them inconsistently. However, we built the MOD with gen one boards.

Looking good.

Well, so ends the PMD CFTBL MOD..... RIP.

Congrats on getting it completed, looks great.