I based my decision on the fact that it seemed to work for Jurassic Park

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Finally made the center rail match what's on the physical game

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I keep working on the code. Starting the ball rolling on art. Recording and uploading some videos of existing modes. Here's Goren's Lament, a secret flipper code that makes goren1818 complain about how bad you're doing.

Started implementing bosses. Half of the map is now explorable.

Started keeping track of game goals. Zero Suit Multiball is qualified when these 4 lights are lit. It currently keeps track of your progress but you can't start the multiball yet.

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And started addressing some lighting issues. Worked on a design for a spotlight that utilizes the same 7 LED light board as the center insert.

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The original ramp molds were positive molds. They represent the area that the ramp occupies. Unfortunately that makes them very tall and difficult to vacuum form. The current ramps are a bad pull. They have round edges where the vacuum didn't have enough power to pull the plastic into the ramp path. This makes the ball roll around a like in a half pipe and the returns are a bit unpredictable.

The solution is to use the original molds to cast a negative mold. A negative mold represents the area around the ramp. This has the advantage of being much smaller and should (maybe, hopefully) vacuum form better.

For this project I use Bondo and wood block filler. I originally planned on wrapping the original molds in wax paper. This didn't work so I switched to covering them in masking tape.

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I started with the U turn ramp. It went mostly smoothly. I ended up with some giant bubbles where the Bondo didn't reach. It had a tight fit and took a bit of effort to get out of the other mold, but nothing too bad.

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Next up, the "ear" ramp. Ended up with less flaws on the first try. Learned some lessons from the first one.

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I used cardboard to create a basin to pour the Bondo into. That gave it a fairly smooth and accurate edge.

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It took the next few weekends to patch and sand the molds. Every flaw will probably show up once they are vacuum formed so I need to get them as smooth as possible.

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Ironing out the wrinkles...

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In the end they came out pretty good. Not perfect, but the flaws are not where the ball travels so I think I can live with them. I might give them one more pass and try to improve them.

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I continue to work on code during my Monday/Wednesday build streams. Here's an tutorial on getting to and playing Generator Multiball.

The Wrecked Ship has no power when you first enter. To activate the ship (and increase shot values and opportunities) you must first enter the generator room behind the drop targets.

Once in the generator room, start multiball by hitting the orange Energy target. A second ball will launch into play with a generous ball save.

Lock the ball behind the drop target. This now becomes a second captive ball. The game will attempt to keep the ball into play by using the upkicker armature as a post. Before I had implemented this the ball would almost always get knocked into the VUK and the ball didn't remain captured very long.

Hitting the captive balls builds up charge. The drop target captive ball awards charge based on opto hits. The regular captive ball will just build up a little charge at a time.

The scoop will be lit once you drain down to one ball. Hitting it will activate the ship and open the exit door. You are now free to explore the powered up ship.

Here's a video demonstration:

Been mostly working on code recently, but have a couple of updates. First, my upkicker switch stopped working! It would only register intermittently. So a replacement was in order. The original was NOS that came with the mech.

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Next, finally broke my back ramp. This was not totally unexpected. I had planned on installing a post but was lazy. So an emergency post was installed. This actually improved gameplay slightly.

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Made this video for Virtual Pinball Expo. Code is much further along than shown here. I also cut about 7 minutes of content out of it to keep it at 10 minutes. Currently 2 bosses are coded, Kraid and Ridley. They actually have death animations and victory laps unlike the battle shown in the video.

More individual rooms are coded now which brings the total room modes coded to 20 out of 50 (I think)

I think just adding a ring to this post would be enough. I started testing without it and decided it wasn't necessary. I'll probably do some testing with it on and see if there's any difference. I'm trying to avoid closing up the ramp shot, even if it's just 1/8". This spot is mostly only hit by a backhand from the left flipper but it's not impossible to nick the post from a right flipper shot.

Hoping the newly manufactured one is more reliable! The weird thing was that the old one seemed to test fine. Reflowing the solder didn't help either. I noticed that the leg had a bit of wobble to it.

Done. Plays moderately better without interfering with the shot. Far right side rollbacks bounce left and are safer.

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And I added a post under the apron by the ball eject. I'm surprised I could tolerate the ball getting stuck there for as long as I did. Only took 2 tries to position it correctly.

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Ordered all the "final" guide rails with cut outs to let the general illumination through. The current solid version basically blocks all the light.

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And I've been updating the CAD model to correct all the mistakes I made. Like the fact that the apron clips were positioned incorrectly. Hoping to cut a new, most likely final, playfield in December.

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WPC-95 games used a post. I may not have needed it if I used a trough and apron from the same manufacturer.

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Final parts keep arriving. Here are the rails. 5 copies. Not sure why I thought that was a good idea...

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These have a dumb design. Always make sure your rail attachment points are tabs on the main rail that can be bent. I have to weld mine on. But first they need to be bent...

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A bit of sloppy welding and it's good enough

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And while I was at it, welded on some side guides to keep the ball from falling off the rail up here

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Next project is figuring out the vertical bridge diversion. I want the ball to return to the flipper when it is in the up position. I physically prototyped a catcher and played around with how the ball behaves when exiting the bridge. Went to CAD and made design attempt one. No welding. It screws together.

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It all depends on if the ball can make the jump, then if it loses momentum or bounces. The bridge actually sits a bit lower in reality due to some spring compression caused by the weight of the mech. Might need to change around the height a bit too but the bridge sits really close to the glass right now.

Or this may just be a total fail. At least it's easy to remove.

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It wasn't a total fail. Not perfect and the design needs to be tweaked, but overall it is still an improvement.

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Thanks! It feels good to finally implement my original design instead of the ball flying off the end every time.

It absolutely is a better choice. There just isn't room below the playfield in this case:

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Could just invert them and hang them from a bracket. Wouldn't look that great but it would work.

Updates! Received modified and new metal pieces. Ball catcher has been updated with a larger back plate. Still not perfect. Best course of action would be to add a one way gate to the front. It's above the playfield so no rush to do that before the final version is cut.

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And the final piece to complete the upper playfield is the ball feeder. No more wild 4 inch drops off the right side. Now it feeds the upper flipper fairly consistently and only has about a 2.5 inch drop. Drop position can be moved slightly by bending the tines.

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Thank you!

And the big news! Aaron from fastpinball hooked me up with his father Mark, AKA Freeplay40 to get better ramps made. I sent the molds from post 212 off to him and he improved them and made some slick, high quality ramps. At this point most of the "final" parts have been manufactured and I just need to do a bit more CAD work and cut a new playfield.

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