Way over priced unless you can't build one. Check out my post in off topic. The virtuapin doesn't have flashers.or feedback. My build has all of that and better tv's for half the price. Also, those generally don't have.the tables preinstalled. Do yourself a favor and join hyperspin ask questions and maybe buy used there for way less. If the $$$ isn't of concern then its not a bad way to go.

In the end your playing a video game not a pinball machine.

most folks don't have room for 50 pins in their home. virtual pinball isn't, and shouldn't be, a first choice.......but it ain't a bad alternative.

that seems way overpriced. if you're gonna buy and not build, i think you can find them a lot cheaper.

one site i know of off the top of my head:

http://www.themameroom.net/virtual-pinball.html

i've never bought anything from them, but i've followed them on facebook because they're always doing custom builds....their virtual pins start out at less than half the price you quoted above.

I totally understand the space issue. I made a custom MAME machine because I didn't have room for the 15 vids that I wanted to buy. But at least a video game is a video game. Pinball is just one something that can't be simulated. I say save the money and purchase an A list title then when you get sick of it trade for another pin.

Love my hyperpin alot did not pay 6K though.

Thanks again Markmon

Enjoy this almost daily as well as my other pins in my collection.

I really like it to save real estate. 250 games one cabinet. Not the same but if done right it is as close as you can get to the real thing. I don't have room to own all of these nor the money to own them all at the same time so this is ideal for playing alot of titles or even play testing titles before you pony up the money for the real game.

I think if fully loaded and have a great PC, 3 monitor system, nudge and tilt mechs and leaf springs for flippers etc..these are worth 4K easy

I think the 6K on ebay is overpriced.... although the build quility looks fantastic. IMHO

Agree with Shoot on this.

Over priced and under powered, but the visual pinball is a great way to plays pins you don't have. It isn't as good as real pins but it is pretty good. Building my own currently....taking way too long

I have built three. Shoot again has one of them now. They are pretty good and definitely a fun addition to a game room.

Absolutely horrible. Couldn't wait to get rid of it. The technology isn't there yet.

I built one we really like it and we play it a lot. It has flashers and full feedback nudging and shaker motor….
If done right they are lots of fun.

Thanks for giving such a detailed description of your issues. Very helpful for everyone. It's pretty annoying when people dog something with no details at all.

I just saw a thread on the pin2k that was done in visual pin....looked sooooo freaking good...then he got a cease and desist letter not even emulated or stolen code

a virtuapin is great when you cant have 50 machines. with it you can play all the machines.. even the really old ones that are so hard to find.
of course vp isnt the same as real pin and it will never be.. but you can play them all and it is very fun. it is a pretty good emulation.
and another good part is you can play some tables done by me(art) at vpforums muhahahahaha like this one:

Link please? jpsalas your work is incredible, never seen anything like that Chrome Terminator 2. If it wasn't for you I probably wouldn't be seriously getting into Visual Pinball since everything else looks like crap in comparison.

One question though, when animating moving parts is it possible to include more frames into the table to make movement more smooth? If people have the hard dive space for 250+ games the extra space requirements would be minor. Also, perhaps more photographic playfields like T2?

I'm sorry that lack of critical detail annoys you. With all due respect, not everyone has as much free time as you do. I wish I had time to make detailed comments every time, but I don't. Regardless if you're emotional invested, or ultra sensitive about the topic, you shouldn't take things so personal. That's my advice.

Title is "Thoughts on Virtuapin?" Those were my quick thoughts. I contribute just like everyone else. It might be helpful, it might be positive, and it might be critical. Not everyone is going to share the same opinion. Learn to accept other people’s opinions. In long, or short form. That's what makes Pinside interesting. Have an open mind, learn to accept it, or let it go.

Not to be blasphemous, but does anyone have experience with a Virtuapin cab? Seems to be a high quality custom cab with great support but very expensive. The cab is about $1K, and the whole package is around $6K. The quality and support seem great, and it seems like the most cost-effective way to play every pin available. Maybe an augmentation to a collection?
Besides the fact that nothing can duplicate a true pinball machine, any thoughts or personal experience with this machine?
http://www.virtuapin.net

You are right about nothing able to duplicate a real pinball machine and if you think this is a substitute for it then it is not going to be for you. However if you have the space and money to invest in it I think you will find lots of enjoyment with one in your existing pin line up.

I stumbled across virtual pinball because I was very much into emulation since my days in university back in '97-98. I was researching into emulator front ends and came across a very slick looking one called Hyperspin. After doing research over on the forums I came across a neat PinMAME cab build by H4CKER and started reading into the Hyperpin section. Now when I first started reading and trying to set things up it was very frustrating and lots of people were posting pics of their final results but leaving out all the little details they had to do in order to setup the front end and Visual Pinball and PinMAME. That is why when I did my first build the first two pages I devoted to have a step by step with lots of pictures of how I got everything working properly.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?7905-37-quot-24-quot-15-quot-77-Bally-Power-Play-quot-Donor-quot-VP-Build

I apologize in advance if the images no longer work as back in 2009 I was just using whatever free image hosting available and now I have a flickr account so makes posting images easier and ad free too! I created a more recent tutorial on getting pinmame up and running in a few minutes so people who were interested in buying a particular pin could try it out on their computer to get an idea of table flow, rules, sounds, animations etc.

http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5886

I've been following Visual Pinball and Hyperpin scene for the past 4 years and built a few cabs for myself and friends. My most recent project was this portable pinmame I built for a friend of mine who set it up at his tattoo shop because he spends most of his day there. Then we exchanged a few messages about having another pinmame cab at home and then even joked saying he wish he could have one where ever he went. I told him if he was willing to budget up to $1200-1300 and trust my ideas and vision I could make a portable unit he would love, here it is:

http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=8110

Total cost for this was around $1300 and the process and hardware for building it isn't that different then building a full sized one. In the end I also made it double as a MAME unit as well with extra controls on the side since he does have a small bartop MAME cab he lugs around to parties or friend's homes so now he can get the best of both worlds. The only thing this portable unit is really lacking is force feedback (eg. solenoids, gear motors, shaker motor) and flashers for light shows that interact with the actual game rom.

There are tons of existing pinmame build threads over on the Hyperpin forums and 3-4 new ones pop up every week and the bar gets raised each time. I've been dragging my feet since last October and been working on my replacement pinmame cab using a P2K a donor cab here:

http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6890

One of the main guys over on the Hyperpin forums that has really pushed the envelope is chriz and here is his second cab after he sold off his first. I'll warn you lots of information and kudos from other members for his contributions and efforts.

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?13146-Big-Bang-Pin-46-30-15-6-LED-Widebody-%28custom-artwork-bezel-less-deep-playfield%29

If you don't have time or patience to do research then paying Noah Fentz who runs virtupin and vpforums.org might be the turn key solution for you but there is a price for that. However I think in the long run it is to your benefit to learn the ins and out of your cab because new tables and technologies are being evolved in the virtual pinball world all the time.

Absolutely horrible. Couldn't wait to get rid of it. The technology isn't there yet.

Would love to see pics of your cab and what you had in it? What was so horrible about it if you don't mind me asking? The technology is there, you just need to be following up on it. The most recent development is actual integration of a real DMD in cabs.

www.pindmd.com

Here is a video H4CKER post up of his Bride2k cab.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PEjc0qXmERs

T2_chrome.jpg T2_chrome_ramp.jpg

If you have built a MAME cab yourself this is not that much harder and there is lots and I mean lots of documentation, diagrams and builds you can read through. DeeGor's made up these wiring diagrams from his build here:

http://bigbangbar.org/pinball/diagrams/

Here is another good sticky over on the HS forums, Pinball Electrical 101
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?12459-Pinball-Electrical-101

The hardest and most tedious part is setting up Hyperpin and VP tables because you have to either download the media packs available or make your own so that the front end isn't missing anything like static backglass images, table images or preview videos, wheel art, flyers, instruction cards etc. Don't post up asking for people to share their setup because once you setup a few tables yourself you will see why

If you have questions or need help feel free to drop me a PM.

Real cab is way better.

Virtual Pin games can be a lot of fun. The Revenge Attack combo. They can also play poorly and lock up.

I'd say if you have room for only 1 pin its not a horrible option

It's great for exposure to tables that you won't find in the wild or in a friend's collection. But the physics seem incorrect and there is no randomness to the ball. On some of the tables, the flippers seem painfully sluggish as well. While it was neat to see and I wouldn't knock others' opinions, it didn't hold my interest past a few games. Same goes for the console pinball games. I wish I had liked it more - they are huge cost savings even versus a 2 machine collection and a hell of a lot easier to find parts for.

How is the response rate on Virtuapin's "commercial grade" monitors? Any noticeable ghosting?

Pinball emulation in general seems glitchy to me and table files range from good to terrible or non functional in some cases, it's a good way to test out machines these days since so few venues exist though.

I can't imagine actually paying money to do it on a big screen in a big box when you get the same experience on a laptop.

Possible to order a VirtuaPin without DMD LCD and second video card in favor of a PinDMD?

The whole thing that draws me to pinball is the fact that there are so many mechanical things going on. If I want to play a video game, I'll play a video game.

Looks like the ppl I know who have them (2) cant wait to get rid of them within a year.
One time a fellow wanted to trade his Virtualpin for my BK2000 - I informed him that BK2000 is already in his game and that he should only buy/consider pins that are not programmed,
his response - " Hey I took a shot "