I'm currently putting together a tips guide (in ms word format) in my spare time.

if anyone wants a copy of what I've got complete (so far), just shoot me a pm with your email address

just an fyi:
I've been painstakingly working on updating mike's macro file for metallica for the past 6 weeks (1.63 to 1.64) and am finally getting close to having it complete. after I'm done, I plan on going back and coloring the unfinished sections (like 'the end of the line')

they shifted the frame numbers between these versions which is why it has taken me so long to shuffle everything (frame by frame) as well as putting all of the frames in order

during the process of doing this I've noticed the following things with the pinball browser macro functionality. optimize does not do what you might think it does. it merely collects all of the [multiple] instances of a particular frame and groups them together within a set of the { and } brackets

all instances of coloring, re-coloring and flood fills of the same pixel location are kept, meaning that if you have something like this:
EditImage,0x5BF
{
Pen,17,47,0,0,1,4,15
Pen,17,47,0,0,1,7,15
Pen,17,47,0,0,1,4,15
Pen,17,47,0,0,1,3,15
FloodFill,17,47,0,0,1,7,15
}

after choosing to optimize it, the result is be exactly the same as above. the optimize functionality does not remove duplicate commands that act upon the same pixel location (keeping only the last instance of coloring (pen and/or flood fill)

if you decide to color something one way, and then change your mind and re-color it a different way, all of the changes remain in the macro file (meaning that the file becomes larger and will take longer to run)

oga:
I'm not sure how difficult (or time consuming) it would be to change, but it would be a great feature if part of the optimization was to take and put the frames in order too.

I realize that it would slow down the process (potentially a very long time due to the number of frames in a macro file), but would definitely make it easier to look at the macro file.

I'm still changing it for a few reasons:
1) I want the frames in order (making it easier to search and color anything left undone
2) if stern does release another version (and adds additional frames of animation, the shiftid command will not work since without the latest version of the rom, you wouldn't be able to re-apply the macro to it

I've completed migrating all of mike d's original macro to 1.64 and am now starting to work on animations that were not completed.
here's an idea of what I'm thinking for "the end of the line"
the_end_of_the_line_(resized).jpg
thoughts? comments?

let's see, we've got a total of 128x32 pixels to work with (and in this case, only 128x25) and a total of 14 usable colors for our palette. how would you do it mr. picasso?

now I'm thoroughly confused. you would add a smartdmd to your metallica, but leave modes uncolored?

you realize that that's why I'm previewing what I'm attempting to color, correct? it's for metallica owners with a smartdmd installed

you, sir, are obviously not the target audience that this is intended for

I'm not even sure why you bothered replying since this is obviously the smartdmd thread

it's not, but it's also not "let's jump into the thread and see what we can take a crap all over" either

I was looking for constructive criticism, not "hey, the product doesn't do what I want it to". an intelligent person would have been able to ascertain that there are limitations (resolution, number of colors that can be used, etc...) and provide comments based on that.

btw, I try not to speak about myself in the 3rd person, so the "he" in your post above I believe was referring to me

here's an actual frame within the pinball browser software. only 334 more frames to color and 'the end of the line' will be complete
0x1522_-_end_of_the_line_(resized).jpg

and how it would appear (as "dots") on the display
end_of_the_line_(browser)_(resized).jpg

I've got a little over 760K of free memory. I'm hoping that's be enough to complete the 'the end of the line'. if I've laid out my palettes correctly, I should be able to save quite a bit by not having to re-color a lot each frame

external storage would be a huge plus and make all of those projects which were once "un-doable" potential candidates once again

I was thinking that the "hammer falling" animation at the end of the image file should probably remain gray-scale since the actual hammer isn't colored. that helps out a bit too

mike d. gets the credit for the 'roadrunner-esce' palette.

I ran into one unused desert frame (from another section of the image) that he had colored when I was re-organizing all of the frames and I really liked what he did. I've made a few subtle changes, but I think that metallica owners with a smartdmd will be pleased with the end result

it's amazing just how many "placeholder" images and animations can be found in the .bin file which are never used in the game. by re-drawing all of the unused sections, lyman could potentially add another 4 or 5 game modes to metallica

work-in-progress sample
end-of-the-line-sample.gif

for those metallica smartdmd owners in europe and other parts outside of the usa, I will also be completing the 'master of puppets' RIP tombstone animations (which replace the cross tombstone pieces used here in the states)

dom,
if you're running firmware 1.64, there will be no offset necessary. I've already painstakingly gone through and [cleaned up] all of mike's macro (which was done for the 1.63 firmware) and corrected the offset already

- j.m.

dom:
you should be able to use pinball browser to determine the hexidecimal frame numbers (eg. 0x????) where ???? is the hex frame no.'s
the stern logo 0x5BF

will these new re-boot offerings include the lighted mod that you hinted at?

'the end of the line' intro animation
eotl-intro.gif

I finally completed coloring the 'end of the line', enjoy

the intro animation
eotl-(intro).gif

driving
eotl-(driving).gif

jumping the chasm
eotl-(jump).gif

literally, the end of the line (hidden for those that don't want to see)

but does it pair well with the light up... ah nevermind

while finishing up 'the end of the line', it got me thinking, why hasn't stern taken the approach and customized their logo (the one that scrolls during attract mode on their machines) and alter it to fit the theme of the machine like movie companies have done with the WB logo at the start of films

this is what I think that metallic's should have looked like:
MET_logo.jpg

for those of you running smartdmd, pm me if you're interested in the macro for this

you mean do it correctly? heck, send me the files and I'll take a look at fixing the mess that you made

I finally have found some time to work on the "rounded" tombstones animation sequences that people outside of north america see on their metallica machines. here is the shot animation (each time you hit a tombstone drop down). I'm going to try and knock out the other 4 segments within the next week or so (time permitting)

graveyard - shot animation

I tried to use colors similar to what mike d. did with the cross tombstone animations but added a bit more "depth" (e.g. more gray levels) and also corrected a small error that the original dot artist made.

a free beer @ expo this year to the first person that identifies what it was that I corrected

here are a few more of the rounded tombstone animations and the hammer falling for those with an LE or a premium

tombstone-exploding.gif

tombstone-crumbling.gif

hammer-falling.gif

if data east was like bally/williams, it's actually only 3 levels of brightness and black

that would be a negative ghost rider. ST:TNG is a bally/williams WPC title which is not supported

pm sent