(Topic ID: 246337)

Metroid Pinball

By TheArrrrrcade

4 years ago


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    There are 385 posts in this topic. You are on page 4 of 8.
    #151 4 years ago

    It lasted for 3 days and made it home safely

    IMG_20190701_163418 (resized).jpgIMG_20190701_163418 (resized).jpg

    These rubbers were new

    IMG_20190702_184142 (resized).jpgIMG_20190702_184142 (resized).jpg

    Good thing I have a new set of flipper rubbers

    IMG_20190705_162129 (resized).jpgIMG_20190705_162129 (resized).jpg

    Only slightly dirty

    IMG_20190705_162335 (resized).jpgIMG_20190705_162335 (resized).jpg

    You know you don't have to full plunge, right? At least now I know for sure where a full plunge goes.

    IMG_20190705_162357 (resized).jpgIMG_20190705_162357 (resized).jpg

    #152 4 years ago

    I forgot to turn on audits until Saturday morning. Saturday it was down for the most time with stuck balls (I wasn't babysitting it as much) so I think it probably got more play on Friday.

    Estimating 500 plays, plus or minus a bit?

    IMG_20190705_180440 (resized).jpgIMG_20190705_180440 (resized).jpg

    #153 4 years ago

    Forgot to mention one cool feature! Twitch integration. Chat appears on the DMD. You can set a bit donation amount that adds a ball to your playfield.

    This is a picture of an early implementation of the chat feature:

    Dka3bTKVsAAzHhH (resized).jpgDka3bTKVsAAzHhH (resized).jpg

    #154 4 years ago

    And now we're caught up. I've mostly taken a break from working on it the last week or so. I just got it set up, cleaned, and replaced the flipper rubbers. I fixed drop target #2 which wasn't working for most of Pintastic.

    I had a cookout so it got a bunch more play with no new issues.

    I've got some bug fixes to test out. I may have a coding/gameplay stream tomorrow night.

    From now on updates will be posted as they happen.

    Still plenty more to do!

    #155 4 years ago

    The lit drop targets and spiral insert lighting are tech I want to see on more games; very nice ideas there. Your game is really cool, I've watched a bunch of your streams, but thanks for dumping all that history in a digestible format.

    #156 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    It arrived safely and I got it set up
    [quoted image]
    There was almost always someone checking it out. Often a line to play.
    [quoted image]
    I took remarkably few pictures of the event that I had been working so hard to get ready for
    [quoted image]

    Nice first pic, that's me and my friend Jay. I recorded some video of the game at Pintastic . Game played great, especially for a home brew. Metroid pinball coverage starts at 14:00 mins.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=840&v=HYzU-yvIjF0

    #157 4 years ago
    Quoted from Maide:

    The lit drop targets and spiral insert lighting are tech I want to see on more games; very nice ideas there

    I suspect the lit drop targets will show up on something else soon. Games are starting to have multi LED inserts. Wonka has them, I think Deadpool had at least one? Those lights are linear though

    #158 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    I suspect the lit drop targets will show up on something else soon. Games are starting to have multi LED inserts. Wonka has them, I think Deadpool had at least one? Those lights are linear though

    Robocop has one Judge Dredd has multiple inserts with four different colored incandescents under each as well

    #159 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    I suspect the lit drop targets will show up on something else soon. Games are starting to have multi LED inserts. Wonka has them, I think Deadpool had at least one? Those lights are linear though

    Some people tried the lit drop target on WOZ as a mod. Unfortunately I think they were 3D printed, and durability was a big issue.

    #160 4 years ago

    Hey neat, my grand champion score held up for the rest of the weekend! Thanks for writing all of this up. I cant wait to play the finished product while begging for help with my own build a ways down the road!

    #161 4 years ago
    Quoted from DaveH:

    Some people tried the lit drop target on WOZ as a mod. Unfortunately I think they were 3D printed, and durability was a big issue.

    These ones are vid1900 approved!

    https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/translucent-drop-targets-from-pinball-mods-vid-s-review

    #163 4 years ago

    I'm going to be working on code and playtesting tonight on stream around 7 Eastern: https://twitch.tv/thearrrrrcade

    #165 4 years ago

    I really in joyed your live stream. Wish I could play it now.

    2 weeks later
    #166 4 years ago

    Progress has been made! First up coding. At Pintastic only one landing site was properly coded. Now there's 4. This is still missing the "door" mechanic where certain shots move you to other rooms/modes.

    Crateria: Land the Gunship. Hit left and right orbits to steer the ship. Then hit the scoop to land it.
    Norfair: Lava Jump. Complete the 4 lit shots to light the side ramp jackpot. Hit the jackpot to collect it. Repeat.
    Maridia: Shifting Sands. Don't sink in the quicksand. Hit stand-up banks to add time. You can't hit the same bank twice in a row. You score more points the longer you last.
    Brinstar: Space Pirate Battle. Instant two ball multiball. Hit the single roving shot to light 8 space pirate shots for a limited time. Hit 4 to complete.

    Added a skillshot on the left side targets. Also added a bunch more light shows. And the best part, connected the bridge!

    IMG_20190724_134346 (resized).jpgIMG_20190724_134346 (resized).jpg

    Although I was still unable to solder the rail together, even using copper. Maybe I should use a torch to heat it? This will probably get replaced but it works for now.

    Of course I wrote some code to make it "explode!"

    1 month later
    #167 4 years ago

    Exciting coding stream now! https://twitch.tv/thearrrrrcade

    Lot's of things have been added since the last post. I'll document all the updates soon...

    3 months later
    #168 4 years ago

    Long time, no Pinside update. Here's a couple of the many things that have been added to the game.

    First up, player controlled slingshot! The upper slingshot is hit a bunch of times to charge it up. The insert light turns on and it behaves like a flipper.

    #169 4 years ago

    Also did some experimenting with the Danesi lock. It works, but isn't used in the game yet. Still needs some small tweaks because it does not confirm that the ball was actually caught. If that happens then the game gets very confused.

    #170 4 years ago

    This is a fantastic thread. Your work is great and so clearly thought out. Congrats to you on making a spectacular game.

    Sorry if I overlooked it but can you possibly shoot/post some gameplay footage of it or, explain any of the rules of the game thus far?

    #171 4 years ago
    Quoted from snyper2099:

    This is a fantastic thread. Your work is great and so clearly thought out. Congrats to you on making a spectacular game.

    Sorry if I overlooked it but can you possibly shoot/post some gameplay footage of it or, explain any of the rules of the game thus far?

    Thank you so much!

    I've been streaming the build on my Twitch channel and you can check out the archive of the latest videos here: https://www.twitch.tv/thearrrrrcade/videos Although the current latest video (12/9/2019) shows me working on a top secret mini game that's separate from the main game. I hope to talk about that more in the next week or two.

    I'll be streaming again tonight so I'll try to record some gameplay sessions while explaining the rules so I can upload to YouTube. I've been meaning to do that for a while. I've documented what has been implemented so far here: https://github.com/mwseiden/metroid_pinball/blob/master/game_rules.txt

    It is a game with a few layers. First, it is a dungeon crawler. You are always in a room which acts as a mode with its own rules and/or bonuses. Each mode has certain shots designated as the doors to other rooms. Some doors have conditions to pass through them, such as requiring a missile to open a red door. Some doors are inaccessible without completing that mode. The idea is to travel deeper into each area and defeat its boss.

    You collect missiles and power bombs on the lower two side stand-up target banks. These are consumable items and are used to open doors or blow up bridges. However, holding on to them adds to your end of ball bonus.

    You can blow up bridges by going through the upper playfield center lane while having a power bomb. This is the castle/saucer/sparky toy in the game. The side ramp feeds that lane most often. The upper playfield is also accessible via the upkicker behind the drop targets but there's a bit more nudging needed to get to the center lane. Blowing it up rewards another skillshot.

    You can start a 3 ball multiball by hitting the captive ball by the side ramp enough times. This stacks with the room mode. You collect jackpots and build up the super jackpot value by hitting the red shots. The super jackpot is in the upkicker. This is a shot that can only be made from the left flipper and requires you to stage the upper flipper if you are cradling any balls on the right flipper. Or just flail, that works too

    The spinner changes what area of the playfield is worth more points. The current score bonus area is indicated by the directional light in the center insert.

    The back ramp will start high jump mode if you hit it enough times. But that's only partially implemented.

    The center stand-up bank qualifies miniboss mode if you complete it 3 times and you collect it on the scoop. It acknowledges that you would have started it but the mode is not implemented yet.

    The in/out lanes light your outlane ball save which can be stacked.

    There are a ton of skillshots.

    And probably a bunch more that I'm forgetting about. There's still plenty of work to do!

    IMG_20191208_142721 (resized).jpgIMG_20191208_142721 (resized).jpg
    #172 4 years ago

    Thanks for posting your code. I've been learning MPF and it's very helpful to see how other people are coding games, even if it's still a work in progress.

    #173 4 years ago

    What a great machine! How did you manage the Danesi lock? I know how it works, but at one thing I have a question. How have you managed that the first dropdown target which hold the first ball dont get shoot down from the second ball ?

    #174 4 years ago
    Quoted from Prospekteur:

    What a great machine! How did you manage the Danesi lock? I know how it works, but at one thing I have a question. How have you managed that the first dropdown target which hold the first ball dont get shoot down from the second ball ?

    The code still isn't perfect but it's really reliable as coded now.

    1. Ball passes opto which starts a lock-check timer.
    2. If rear drop falls during this timer then immediately reset. It SHOULD apply low hold power on the drop target coil to ensure that it does not drop but that's future work. As it is, the act of the coil dropping pushes the ball backwards far enough to give me time to reset the drop target before it needs to catch the ball. (At least most of the time)
    3. When timer completes, validate that the ball is resting behind the drop target using the opto state. If so, add a new ball to the playfield.
    4. From this time forward until multiball start, the rear drop should always reset immediately.
    5. Repeat for ball 2 lock (and 3, 4, however deep it goes)
    6. The last hit drops the drop targets for all locked balls and posts a multiball started event

    MPF has a concept called multiball locks which can be used to handle the locking and playfield ball counts. I couldn't use those because MPF ball devices expect coils and switches to be on the same node board. I clearly did not plan ahead when I wired it. So I had to write some simple custom python code to keep track of locks.

    https://github.com/mwseiden/metroid_pinball/blob/master/modes/bao_base/code/bao_base.py#L18

    #175 4 years ago

    Oh yeah! Step 1.5 is front target goes up.

    #176 4 years ago

    Here's the first of hopefully many minigames. Bootleg Atomic Obliteration which is an implementation of the TNA ruleset played on Metroid's layout. Accessed via flipper code.

    #177 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    I couldn't use those because MPF ball devices expect coils and switches to be on the same node board

    We got that for flippers, pops and slings if the hardware requires it for hardware rules. However that should not apply to ball devices. Or do you mean that we expect ball switches/optos for every ball? Nevertheless you code is probably fine for this purpose.

    Jan

    #178 4 years ago
    Quoted from jabdoa:

    We got that for flippers, pops and slings if the hardware requires it for hardware rules. However that should not apply to ball devices. Or do you mean that we expect ball switches/optos for every ball? Nevertheless you code is probably fine for this purpose.

    I can't find the code I was using. Seems to be long gone. But the error I received said could not call open or close on something.

    1 week later
    #179 4 years ago

    Metroid was nominated for a best homebrew TWIPY! It's up against some cool games, but I hope you consider voting for me!

    https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/quiz/twipy-2019-ballot/

    #180 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    Metroid was nominated for a best homebrew TWIPY! It's up against some cool games, but I hope you consider voting for me!
    https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/quiz/twipy-2019-ballot/

    you know I did

    #181 4 years ago

    Working on the game now if anyone wants to check it out: https://twitch.tv/thearrrrrcade

    #182 4 years ago

    Awesome build there Sir. I hope to be there one day.

    #183 4 years ago
    Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:

    Metroid was nominated for a best homebrew TWIPY! It's up against some cool games, but I hope you consider voting for me!
    https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/quiz/twipy-2019-ballot/

    You know I voted for ya.

    #184 4 years ago

    You deserve to win the TWIPY. Voted.

    #185 4 years ago

    Uploaded a walkthrough of the rules as of now. It only took a half an hour to get through them...

    2 months later
    #186 4 years ago

    Made some more progress. The plastic clips kept falling off the original rails. They would twist up and the ball would fall off. The plastic ball returns blocked the view of the inlane lights.

    So I learned to weld (poorly!) and made some new rails. I still need to add one more side guide to the back ramp because the ball can fall off on really fast shots. At least it doesn't fall off into the outlane...

    IMG_20200210_235906 (resized).jpgIMG_20200210_235906 (resized).jpgIMG_20200224_184018 (resized).jpgIMG_20200224_184018 (resized).jpgIMG_20200224_205545_639 (resized).jpgIMG_20200224_205545_639 (resized).jpgIMG_20200226_202711 (resized).jpgIMG_20200226_202711 (resized).jpg
    1 month later
    #187 3 years ago

    Got to play this at Pintastic. Super impressed. Wish I had the guts to build a home brew.

    1 week later
    #188 3 years ago

    Been working on tons of code. More light shows, sounds, modes. Here's the new and improved bonus sequence:

    #189 3 years ago

    Also implemented the mapping system so the dungeon crawler aspect is easier to understand. It keeps track of rooms visited and completed so I can start triggering modes and scoring based off your progress. It needs polish to look perfect but as of now it is fully functional. Crateria has all its rooms visitable. Maridia has all but the boss room. Maybe it's time to start coding that?

    IMG_20200426_113252 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113252 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113301 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113301 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113309 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113309 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113319 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113319 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113336 (resized).jpgIMG_20200426_113336 (resized).jpg
    #190 3 years ago

    Not a whole lot to report on physical parts. A screw had fallen out of a coil stop on the upper flipper which made the armature go out of alignment. Eventually that wore out the linkage and the flipper started binding up. So a partial rebuild was in order. This was a nice test. With the original playfield I had to remove it from the cabinet to do an upper flipper alignment. Not anymore! Everything is accessible.

    IMG_20200411_102402 (resized).jpgIMG_20200411_102402 (resized).jpg

    And as a bonus from all this, the upper flipper is now better aligned and can make the side ramp easier! But on the downside, the ball can get wedged behind it pretty tight. Not so tight that you can't flip it out but it does take a lot of flips to loosen it.

    IMG_20200411_110946 (resized).jpgIMG_20200411_110946 (resized).jpg

    #191 3 years ago

    At some point I figured out that the legs were two different lengths and I had them reversed! The front legs were on the back and the back legs on the front. That explained why I couldn't make the game steep enough and had to put it on blocks...

    IMG_20200419_145058 (resized).jpgIMG_20200419_145058 (resized).jpg

    Reversing them was anxiety inducing. My stool I use for installing legs wasn't tall enough so I had to pile up some plywood under it. It was incredibly wobbly but I got it done. Now the game is steeper and more level. That improved gameplay.

    IMG_20200429_105211 (resized).jpgIMG_20200429_105211 (resized).jpg

    #192 3 years ago

    And another final part arrived!

    IMG_20200420_114558 (resized).jpgIMG_20200420_114558 (resized).jpg

    TaylorVA at Reese Rails made some incredible looking playfield rails for me! Got one in black and a spare unpainted set.

    IMG_20200420_115551 (resized).jpgIMG_20200420_115551 (resized).jpg
    IMG_20200420_115605 (resized).jpgIMG_20200420_115605 (resized).jpg

    Thanks Taylor!

    screenshot_new_rails (resized).pngscreenshot_new_rails (resized).png

    #193 3 years ago

    Any reason not to just have a metal guide behind the flipper instead of a rubber? Seems like it'd get caught less.... Or stick a standup back there for a secret shot

    #194 3 years ago

    Both Steve Ritchie and Wolfmarsh told me I didn't have enough inserts. I should listen to the experts so I'm going to add a bunch. First I need to fix the Mother Brain insert. I had made it the wrong size. Apparently there is no such thing as a 1" x 2" insert. So I updated that in CAD.

    IMG_20200403_111259 (resized).jpgIMG_20200403_111259 (resized).jpg

    You can see the workaround here on the left. Two 1" x 1" inserts and Bondo. Works fine for the whitewood but not for the final. Also picking out more locations to add more. I'll post another update once I've got that completed...

    IMG_20200427_214556 (resized).jpgIMG_20200427_214556 (resized).jpg

    #195 3 years ago
    Quoted from zacaj:

    Any reason not to just have a metal guide behind the flipper instead of a rubber? Seems like it'd get caught less.... Or stick a standup back there for a secret shot

    That's probably what I should do. I've been thinking about the best way to fix it. I actually had a leaf switch on that rubber originally but took it out.

    I'm thinking about adding a thin standup target near the tip of the flipper where the mini loop rail is bent back from me hitting it all the time.

    #196 3 years ago

    And that's about all I have to report for now. Here's a flyover view of the current state of the playfield:

    1 week later
    #197 3 years ago

    Just discovered this thread, great machine! Thank you for taking the time to share all your progress with info, super informative and motivating!!

    1 week later
    #198 3 years ago

    Redesigned the upper flipper area. Added a target and changed out the rubber behind the flipper for a wireform rail.

    cad_upper_flipper_redesign (resized).pngcad_upper_flipper_redesign (resized).png
    #199 3 years ago

    And I bought an appearing post for the back orbit so I can intentionally drop the ball into the pop bumpers. All modeled and added to the design.

    cad_appearing_post (resized).pngcad_appearing_post (resized).png
    #200 3 years ago

    And I added more inserts! The 3 new square ones on the lower playfield have 4 LEDs each.

    Playfield v378 Full (resized).pngPlayfield v378 Full (resized).png
    There are 385 posts in this topic. You are on page 4 of 8.

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