I assume that your Caddyshack reference is because the owners of *that* franchise would come after you, not PPS, right?

As for that, I've *always* thought that NGG would be better with an actual Caddyshack theme. That said, seems like a better candidate for P-ROC rather than FreeWPC since you could use an LCD and actual movie graphics, because...

Seems the way around the license issue in "can't use stuff from the movie" is possible. It makes distribution "interesting", but you *could* write a program that pulls the movie scenes and sounds you need out of a DVD. Then distribute that program and users would have to own or buy a copy of the DVD and build their own copy. Now, if you really wanted to have a "complete" game you could do your own alternate graphics and sounds, too. But I don't think I'd bother, personally.

But again, that's something more suited for P-ROC than FreeWPC. Unless you also wanted to write something that converted actual Caddyshack movie scenes to dots, but I don't see that working very well. *shrug* But you could potentially still get Caddyshack sounds this way and do your own custom dots...

--Donnie

Can't blame you for this at all, and if you have the ability to do cool dots and sound (or at least get that part contributed), it'll be pretty great this way, too.

As for pinball_happy wishing for a ROM burner, they really aren't that expensive and definitely aren't difficult to use. You'll want an eraser, too, but again, not expensive.

I have a burner and plenty of ability to use one, but no NGG right now. I've got a WTB out there looking for a prototype one, but so far no sellers. I've got my eyes open for a close enough decent deal on a non-proto, too, but only thanks to this project. So if one falls into my lap I'll be willing to be a tester, too. I've been burning ROMs since I was 12 and around the coin-op basically my entire life.

--Donnie

Related question, then...has anyone done any open-source-ish tools for dot animations that will work with FreeWPC? I poked around the FreeWPC docs and don't see anything mentioned in this area. I did see the description of how the pixel intensity works, but that's it.

--Donnie

No doubt. We came to play pinball. Not Baby Pac-Man.

--Donnie

And to MXV's point, NGG was made when it was still mostly operators with games. And those software updates weren't generally sent to anyone...if you wanted it you either burned your own ROM or your distributor did it. *Most* operators out there couldn't actually even change a ROM without breaking something, so it's not like they often worried as much about updates once a game shipped.

So releasing an incomplete game that you could just update later wasn't really a "thing" like it is now. They did try to fix significant bugs, and why that may not have happened in *that* title's case is a question worth asking. But I'm not sure the "incomplete" thing holds water.

--Donnie