This Week in Pinball Updates

THAT's the Wonka topper you get for $12,500? lolol

Wow. deeproot announced what, like 10 games, plus their Houdini ripoff? And now they are becoming “less interested” in pinball.

Read the bit on the computer playing pinball. Sorry... can't help myself. Here's an old video of an early prototype P3 playing itself.

- Gerry
https://www.multimorphic.com

Six years before - and you didn't even need the backend computing power of Azure to do it!

It actually looks like the Microsoft one might just be randomly flipping the flippers. I see the rig that's presumably holding a camera, but the flippers seem to be firing way too often and randomly to convince me they have software doing any tracking-based flip logic.

We've actually been considering enhancing our software development kit to include some AI parameters in each 'mode' (modes in P3 apps are just sections of logic that perform a function. They could be complex modes, like a full multiball or story-mode, or they could just be a subset of that). Those parameters would help the computer decide what are the most valuable shots to hit at any given time so that an auto-playing P3 could choose more advantageous shots to hit and score really well. We could even factor in risk vs reward based on shot-making metrics so that the computer could try to build up multipliers and hurry-up values before cashing in.

I wrote a game called "H-O-R-S-E" for that early proto, where a human and the computer would take turns making defined shots. Even with pretty simple tracking and timing logic, the computer was about 80% accurate (much better than I was). I bet we could dial that in to get close to perfection in single ball play.

Super fun and interesting stuff. Wish there was more time in the day and fewer other priorities! Would love to put together a man-vs-machine challenge!

- Gerry
https://www.multimorphic.com

No matter who wins, humanity loses. If you do add that to the SDK, I'd love to see it (and use it) for some of the more ambitious modes I'm writing.

I think the Microsoft computer playing is trying to showcase one of their Cognitive Service APIs: the vision one I assume. A combination of visual review to try and understand what is happening while the outcomes let the machine "learn" to do better and better at the task.

I actually found very little about the pinball demonstration in any write-ups, though there is a pretty interesting summary of the Vision API and the five core elements that make it up: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2017/02/13/cognitive-services-apis-vision/

So if the idea is how artificial intelligence can learn to play a physical pinball machine, I'm guessing those seemingly random flipper flips are part of its learning process to figure out when flipping might somehow influence the ball. That or it lost track of it entirely.

Still, I think it's an interesting use of the AI technology versus the usual object identification/photo ID stuff we're more familiar with seeing.

Microsoft has been promoting - and failing at - "the power of the cloud" in gaming for YEARS. Crackdown was supposed to have completely destructable environments with realistic demolition and a bunch of other stuff thanks to the "power of the cloud." None of it happened. Lag was the main problem, IMO.

It's certainly interesting stuff. The metrics for success / improvement determine how effective the learning can be, how long it would take to reach arbitrary success thresholds, and/or how complex the learning algorithms need to become. For instance, if the metric is simply 'score', it could take years and years of constant play for a machine to randomly figure out what results in better scores, even if it watches other people play and tries to decipher what's happening to result in better scores. It's easy for us to watch a video and see what good players do better than pool players, but we have context and fairly in-depth knowledge of what's happening. If instead the metrics are how well the machine is able to hit a specific target given the velocity (speed and direction) of a ball coming towards a flipper, and if the software has some knowledge of the rules, it could probably become really good really quickly.

- Gerry
https://www.multimorphic.com

Wow great review so far. Finding it easy to use the links to navigate. Hoping there may be a single row table added to show summary scores and final. It would be helpful to see each category defined someplace as a framework. Also would like to know if you are averaging category scores or use a weighting system.

Sharpeshooting with the Pros is not available with the free version of Stern Insider, FYI.

Yup. Looks cool, but I'm not paying for JP tips from the same company I paid for the game.

Old hosts quitting is the best thing that ever happened to your podcast. New format is great, concise segments with different voices for each. Easy to tune out the same voice(s) if you hear them for too long a stretch. It's almost like the evening news, "and now to Jane for the weather."

Some of the news stuff is a bit redundant if you've already read the website, but it's nice when (with Harry Potter for instance) you put a personal spin on it, just not reading the site verbatim. Beginner segment isn't for me, but that's fine, I can fast forward. Dwight's pinball secrets segment is AWESOME. I'd listen to that religiously as its own 5-minute podcast. Even after 20+ years in the hobby I expect to learn some cool stuff from it.

For what it's worth, your voice is easy on the ears, NPR-esque. Some pinball podcasters are extremely grating to me, just based on like, accents and/or speech patterns. Sonically off-putting.

Gotta hand it to you, I'm eating my words. After one episode TWIP is already on my (very) short list of worthwhile podcasts.

Remember those call in cheat lines in the back of video games back in the day?

Enjoyed the episode. What could Macho be planning?

Free wuhan virus in each bag?

Are you SURE those pins came from the US? Most companies that sell them at a price that's not ridiculously expensive are just fronting Chinese factories in my experience.

Doesn't matter, though. Throwaway topical joke...

Are shirts the same size? If so, I’d think Large would fit most people, but have seen people wearing 5XL at pinball shows

Big news if true .... is TWIP still planning to give away 1 of each Deeproot title? Hoping so but time may have changed things.