(Topic ID: 144606)

The Cave - pinball retheme

By ApplePie

8 years ago


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13
#1 8 years ago

Anyone out there enjoy the console/PC game “The Cave” created by Ron Gilbert? The artwork is great, the humor is dark and the storyline is entertaining to say the least. I’ve wanted to do a re-theme of an older pin into The Cave for a while now so a couple of months ago I picked up a neglected Stern Big Game pin that had been making the rounds on Kijiji for the past year or two. After setting it up in the garage and playing a few games (with the worst functioning flippers and pops I have seen anywhere, ever) it turned out to be a pretty darn fun game. Drops, pops and spinners, 80’s style. 436.JPG436.JPG

I decided at the time to strip the cabinet down and redo the cabinet artwork in the style of The Cave game box art. This is about the absolute limit of my artistic talent so I employed some additional help from my wife (also doesn’t hurt to get some buy in on the project early since I was planning on stripping the playfield down in the dining room of all places…) I’m quite happy with the results!

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#2 8 years ago

When I started this project I didn’t really have a plan for the playfield art design or how I was going to create the artwork. Fortunately my buddy (Al) knows a highly talented artist (Vince) … and voila, problem solved. A few brainstorming sessions later and Vince was off to the races. The playfield is going to be a hand painted collage of various iconic scenes from The Cave game itself depicting the scenes and characters. Vince is working on the playfield now so I won’t put the cart too far ahead of the horse. Pictures to follow in due course.

My original plan for the game code was just to reuse the exiting stern boards and effectively have this as an “artistic” re-theme, later adding an MP3 trigger of some kind for additional voices and sound effects. Well a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a Pinside posting from Jim Askey (MyPinballs.com) discussing his Bally/Stern replacement board set. Crap. My relatively simple project just got a lot bigger! Of course the lure of fully integrated sounds and an updated ruleset was too tempting so I ordered a set.
My first goal is to get the pin functioning again with the original boards, just to make sure I didn’t screw anything up in my rebuild. I will probably keep the game in the “playable” stage until I make good progress on my second goal. Speaking of which, my second goal is to get all the hardware (drivers, lamps and switches) mapped over properly for the new boards and some basic code in place to make the game playable. I’m not sure whether I will recreate the original Big Game ruleset for the new boards or whether I will come up with a new “mode based” ruleset. I need to think this through some more before setting down one path or the other. Any and all feedback appreciated!!!

Anyways, I thought I would get this thread started and post updates as I go along. My target is to pull this off in the next few months so wish me luck!

#4 8 years ago

Yes I hand painted the cab. Took quite some time to pull off but was a fun part of this project so far none the less.

#5 8 years ago

I sanded the entire playfield flat with my orbital sander and 180 grit paper. Time consuming but left a flat playfield and no scratches to speak of. The inserts I hand sanded to 320 so they look "frosted" I'm going to put clear waterslide decals on the inserts after the playfield is painted and before it is cleared. I'm up in the air on the decals at the moment. Option 1 is to stick with the original design and create some updated rules around that. Option 2 is to create a new set of rules then create some insert decals to reflect the goals of the new rules. I'm leaning towards option 2 but haven't got it all mapped out in my head yet!

#11 8 years ago

A brief update on the playfield. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I will save my breath. Step 1) start with the woodimage.jpgimage.jpg

#12 8 years ago

Step 2) come up with a plan with various screenshots from the game.

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18
#13 8 years ago

Step 3). Let Vince do his thing... This is going to look sick when it is finished!

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#16 8 years ago

As I understand things, air brush for the most part with hand painting as required for fine details. I'm looking forward to the next update pic myself!

#19 8 years ago

Inserts are all masked off. On this playfield they are all either 3/4", 1" or 1 1/4" circles so it's easy to cut masking with a circle punch (my wife has a set from her card making supplies). The inserts are water slide decals printed on a laser printer and cut out with the same circle punch. They get installed after the playfield is painted. Clear coat goes over everything after the decals are installed.

#24 8 years ago

I will post more photos as things progress, nothing too terribly exciting this time! I'm splitting my efforts between reinstalling the cabinet wiring harness, reworking the orientation of the displays in the backbox and getting my head around the coding for the new boards. A little work with the hands and a little work with the brain every day, not a bad mix. And damn right, home made apple pie is where its at!

#25 8 years ago

So I've done some thinking about the backbox and I've decided that I prefer the look of the newer style "dmd on the bottom" with the translite artwork above that. So I stripped the GI wiring from the back of the score panel (I actually have no idea what the real name for this panel is ) and ran it through my table saw to produce a more compact version of the score panel area which will mount in the backbox at the bottom. This will leave room above for a rectangular translite unbroken by the score displays. A little rewiring of the controlled lamps (high score, shoot again...) and I think I'm off to the races.

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#26 8 years ago

OK, so I have the condensed score panel installed now along with the cabinet wiring harness and the backbox wiring harness. Throwing the power back on didn't produce any smoke and the displays lit up fine so all looks to be in order 006 (2).JPG006 (2).JPG

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#27 8 years ago

I just got this update and I can only say I'm blown away. Can't wait to see it in person! 006.JPG006.JPG

#28 8 years ago

Stickers covering the insert removed. Waterslide decals need to be applied over the inserts and then the clear coat. I had better finish up the playfield wiring harness and mechs so I'm ready for when she comes home!

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1 week later
#36 8 years ago

The new boards arrived today from MyPinballs (Jim). Nice! I've been madly writing code for the past week and things look like they are coming together nicely. Now on to collecting 60+ .wav files required for the game sound effects. I created a dozen or so sound clips a month ago using Audacity to extract the streaming game sounds ... but I completely forgot how I did it and am having trouble recreating the correct settings! Dang. Some days I really hate computers... Oh well, I will figure it out eventually.

Perhaps another week or so for the playfield to be cleared, at which point I shall emerge from behind the computer and move on to reassembling the playfield. I'm really looking forward to that part now

1 week later
17
#38 8 years ago

Here is a shot of the playfield with the first clear applied (nicely done Marty!). I love how the colors pop with the clear

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#39 8 years ago

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#41 8 years ago

Meanwhile back at the ranch... I've been working on the game code. After a self directed crash course in C++ (complete with several questions for Uncle Google) I've managed to replicate the original Big Game rule set in the Arduino IDE to what I estimate is about 95% accuracy. Took me around 4000 lines of code to do it, and I'm fairly certain anyone with a programming background could make it more efficient but I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far. Everything compiles now without errors so that's a milestone for sure. Just how well the code actually works in the game will have to wait until I have the playfield back together and functional with the original boards then complete the board swap. One step at a time. I'm expecting to have the playfield installed around the second week of January so will post a bunch more pictures of the assembly then, and a maybe video of the pin playing with the original boards when I get to that stage.

Here's a picture of the new boards, the controller on the left with the two Arduino Megas plus one Arduino Nano and the driver board on the right. If you have really good eyesight you might even be able to decipher what happens in the code when the drop target #1 is hit

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#43 8 years ago
Quoted from BangBackula:

This looks absolutely gorgeous!!! The Cave was a fantastic game. I'm glad it's receiving this kind of love. Can't wait to see it all finished up. Now you just have to find a way to have three people play it at once!!!

OK, now that idea is pure genius! If you have any ideas on how to accomplish that feat let me know

#51 8 years ago
Quoted from seshpilot:

Did your artist friend paint directly onto the playfield? What's the white underneath the artwork? Looking amazing bro.

Vince laid down a white primer coat on top of the wood playfield, which is likely what you see on the edge. Airbrush colors over the primer.

#52 8 years ago
Quoted from CaptainNeo:

that looks fantastic. can't imagine the time and money spent to freehand an entire playfield like that.

As far as time commitment goes, let's just say most of my updates from Vince were received at about 1:30 am... on a weeknight...

1 week later
#59 8 years ago
Quoted from swedishc:

Amazing work!
I am the Executive Producer on The Cave at Double Fine. I always thought the game art/theme would make for an amazing pin, and what you have done is amazing!
Let me know what art, sounds, music...etc you need for the project and I am happy to provide them to you.
I image you will also need a set of these http://shop.doublefine.com/products/the-cave-character-figurines , so PM me you address and I will send you a set.
Looking forward to seeing more updates on this project!
-Matt Hansen

Hi Matt, great to hear from you! I'm always blown away by how many pinheads there are out there and how friendly, helpful and supportive everyone is!

I would love a set of figurines I'm envisioning a custom cave themed shadow box style topper where the characters light up when each character is collected in the game. Could be cool...

Thanks again for reaching out. You made my day!

Paul

#60 8 years ago
Quoted from labnip:

time for an update

I've been away for the holidays so nothing really happening other than a little work on the code. I'm going to dedicate a good chunk of time in January so look for regular updates starting again next week.

#68 8 years ago

The plastics are being hand painted as well. Since the artwork runs under many of the plastics the plan is for a translucent versus opaque style to them. From what I've seen so far I think it will work out nicely...

#70 8 years ago

A few comments on why I've taken the approach i have for this project:
- when I picked up Big Game it was in awful condition. No backglass, no playfield glass for several years and previous owners, lots of playfield wear, all pops mechs were broken, both kicker mechs were broken, all four flippers were worn beyond belief. Despite all of this you could actually still play a game and the game play was fun. I really like the Big Game rules and the layout isn't like any of my other games. For this reason I have decided to stick with the original Big Game rules in my retheme. So, after a small wheelbarrow load of new replacement parts this pin will play like a new Big Game and have look and feel of one of my favorite games in The Cave. That combo works for me.
-for those out there who feel that every pin should be restored, I'm also in the process of a complete Sorcerer restoration so perhaps my galactic karma is balanced 1
- I wanted to make sure this project would be completed. There are dozens and dozens of projects out there that are so huge they are at risk of never being completed. For this reason, Jim's MyPinball board replacements for original Bally/Stern boards offer a drop in option which gives you the ability to create custom code and sounds while using the existing displays.
-Going the alternate route of PRoc or Fast plus Mission Pinball framework and LCD/DMD would open up lots of cool options but the additional complexity versus Jim's boards is orders of magnitude. I would love to create a pin using this framework but thats for the next project...

#74 8 years ago

Here is the current status of the playfield plastics. Ten of the required twelve pieces are complete, however the last two are going to have to wait until I get the playfield populated since my original Big Game was missing those plastics and I couldn't make a template copy. You'll notice different degrees of transparency in some of the upper plastics which will hopefully allow for some of the playfield art to be visible through the plastic. It's a bit of a test so hopefully it works out!

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#75 8 years ago

On a slightly different topic, does anyone know of a pin that uses the quad flipper setup from Big Game that has a multiball? Looking forward I would like to add a multiball and was wondering if there was some youtube gameplay of a similar pin with multiball.

Some hardware modification would be required to handle more than one ball:
1) Since there is no ball trough to speak of (the single ball sits on the outhole switch and kicks over the "ramp" into the shooter lane), I would have to create a way to store three balls (hopefully, two as a minimum) and have a switch for each ball location. Need to do some more research on options here. There is a single saucer in the top left of the playfield that could be used as a physical ball lock during gameplay. All opinions and ideas welcome!
2) I think an autolaunch would be needed as well. There is space in the driver boards for an additional solenoid so this shouldn't be a major modification.
3) I'm sure there's something else I'm missing...

1 week later
15
#76 8 years ago

The playfield is now in my house (hooray!) and it looks gorgeous. Some pics now and more to follow in the coming days as she goes back together...

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11
#79 8 years ago

So after a couple of late nights I have my pin back together again. Oh yeah! Although I seem to have lost my helper to the new distraction in the background (he wasn't half that tall when I ordered it!).

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#81 8 years ago

Of course nothing goes quite according to plan. I throw the switch and everything powers up nicely with the original boards. Seven beeps and flashes on the MPU. All good. Attract mode starts, with about half the controlled lamps out. Hmmm. I tracked that one back to incredible finicky connectors on the lamp driver board (J3, J2 and J1). Amazingly on J3 the connector has to be pulled half way back off the header pins for most of the lamps to come on. That's not going to work for long! I'm going to re-pin all the lamp connectors for good measure (should have thought of this one before...).

Ignoring the lamp issue for now, the pin sits happily in attract mode but I can't get a game to start. The player 1 display shows 0 31 10 and the credit/game score shows 31 10. I haven't spent a lot of time troubleshooting this yet but I have tried a few things that first came to mind (like putting a ball in the trough). I'm not yet familiar with the test mode for these Bally/Stern pins but I fumbled my way through to the solenoid test. All the solenoids fire in the test except the flippers. Checked the voltages at the coils and everything is 46v. Ok, so far so good. I think I need to do the switch test next to check for any closed switches...

#82 8 years ago

Problem solved. Start button switch on inside of coin door was shorting against the test button bracket. Small adjustment and she starts a game now. Thanks to Jim for the suggestion to look there

Now some adjustments to the mechs and switch gaps to get the pin behaving.

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1 week later
#88 8 years ago

I've been out of town this week so haven't had a chance to work on anything. I will have more time in the next couple of weeks to sort out the new boards and get everything behaving. I promise to make a video when I get something worth showing! In the meantime, the apron and shooter rod cover are finished (sorry about the rotated pic, I can't seem to get it right...)

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2 weeks later
#91 8 years ago

Ok, here we go. The past two weeks have been spent working through a number of smallish issues like non functioning bulbs (turned out to be a problem with me using non-ghosting LED's in place of cheap regular ones), chasing short circuits (I'm pretty certain this is a blown BR3 bridge rectifier on the rectifier board, new Rottendog board on order so in the meantime I have no 43v and hence no solenoids), and getting my first run of the code to function semi-intelligently. Here is a video of how things stand as of today, and I have to say I think it is coming together nicely!

A lot of what I enjoy about The Cave video game is the atmosphere created by the music and the entertaining stories of the seven characters that adventure through the game. So in order to bring some of this environment to the pin I've attached the "introduction" story to the attract mode followed by a looping background soundtrack . I owe a special thanks to Matt Hansen at Doublefine for providing me with some of the great soundtracks from the game which are just a pleasure to listen to while the game sits in attract mode. I've created a "story" for each character which is chosen randomly to play with each new ball. The story plays on channel 2 while the game sound effects play on channel 1. There are also a number of random sayings that play when the ball is drained with the ball save active and a series of different random sayings that play when the ball drains without the ball save. There may also be a few "moral lessons" for the player when the game ends Turn up the volume and see if you can pick out the various components of the sound calls, it's definitely one of my favorite parts of the pin.

As far as the code goes, it works about as well as I could have hoped for a first run. There are only a few hours of debug into it so far, and many many more required to smooth it out. I've tried to replicate the original Big Game code as close as possible since Big Game is such a fun game to play. The bonus countdown is really cool for this game so I tried to replicate that as best I could. Still needs some tweaking but you should get the gist of it from the video.

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