And it looks like they got a takedown notice (probably from Stern). Ghostbusters no longer shows up as a download or forum item on monsterbashpincab. At all. Except for the background sidebar image and the old WIP thread.

Some confirmation. It was actually Farsight that asked for removal, which is not terribly surprising. I'm also expecting the next Stern Pinball Arcade update they do will change things to make the ROM patch instructions basically invalid for making extant copies of VPX Ghostbusters work.

Finally, properly joining the club here with our new build, Radiant Silverball. Stage 1 is basically finished: cabinet, computer, controls. Widebody lockdown bar and legs are vintage Bally, coin door came from a six-player X-Men cab (and even wired so you can add coins via the reject inserts!), playfield is a 9-year old 47" right now. The cab is patterned after a Gottlieb System 1, since we have a Solar Ride to reference.

PinUp was pretty easy to install. As noted, follow the instructions carefully, I didn't, but I didn't have any real trouble as I've been watching it since it was "just" the PinUp Player. PinUp Popper quickly and decisively "fired" PinballX for me as the front end of choice. I even got it to support my PostDMD configuration in the front end with a little fiddling with the audio screen, and some choice media installs.

If you need video help, TerryRed on YouTube has a bunch of videos just on installing and configuring PinUp.

And expect to see all the "it's literally just a video game, get a real pinball in that space" types in the thread about asking that be added.

The guy running it determined it wasn't worth the time anymore, between keeping the crackers out who wanted to use the server for their own ends/advertising, and the threat of the EU copyright thing that's been coming down the pike, and closed it.

I've downloaded it, but I haven't loaded it up on the cab yet.

PinballX has one big, big con for me... it has an override against key settings in Visual Pinball that's set to "on" by default. I can understand why it's there - it technically reduces the number of places you need to configure cabinet buttons - but many of the support issues of "my flipper buttons don't work when I run from PinballX" and "now I can't exit the tables" comes from this very thing. It's very much a "break the user experience" thing, and you would need to run from a fresh VPX install to make it work right that way.

It can be easy to sort out once you find out what's going on. The biggest issue is that you set the keys in VPX, start setting up PinballX, and it can wind up undoing all your work, and some people wind up assumingthat VPX is not saving the key setup, when it's PinballX overwriting it. I found it pretty quickly, but some people struggle with it and pretty much go to the forums, say, "VPX isn't saving keys, I go back to the front end and we're borked again, what the hell," and someone always has to walk them through the process.

I don't mind the setting being present, I just don't like that the default is "overwrite VPX key assignments".

I use Pinup Popper at this point for my front end. I was setting up a cabinet, and Popper came with all the nifty tools "straight out of the box" to help get everything all set up. PinballX is only just catching up, there was a period of time you could tell it was the only front end available, it wasn't very easy to set up at all.

I'd definitely say this is true. I actually had UltraDMD working on my cab until very recently, and something I did trying to improve it's appearance broke it. The only real reason I haven't taken the time to get it fixed up is that I plan on replacing the computer in it in the next couple of weeks anyway, with one that I already have more or less set up and UltraDMD is working on, and more importantly, works the exact way that I actually want it to.

As I did note, there's a different computer going in there anyway that UltraDMD works on with Freezy's DMD dll, so I'm not going to worry about getting it working on the computer coming out of it before that happens.

Got my machine pretty much finished, although there's still a world of DOF and SSF to add into it later.

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So I’ve opened up a YouTube channel basically documenting some of my projects as a Maker – models, props, cosplay, and private home arcade builds. I decided to lead with installing the vintage chimes for our pincab build.

Yeah, so much changes... and the problem with a preloaded cabinet is whether or not the tables are outdated... there's been a number of changes in software even in the past six months that may not be reflected in the preload as provided. There's even a local seller here in Denver that I know is using a 3-4 year old build of the software (VP9, current is VPX version 10.6), which means there's issues with appearance and physics. Plus, what constitutes all tables? Even in VPX, that can mean 600-700 tables easily. Doing at least the software yourself means you can pick and choose what actually goes on, and also that you know what to do when things inevitably break.

Yeah, I don't know how "complete" Noah's software installs would be, whether it's just VPX and a front end, or if it would include all the other bells and whistles like a better DMD software for original tables (FlexDMD is so much better than UltraDMD) and PinUp Player for PuP-Packs. I also don't know if he's moving to provide a bezel option for a "full screen LCD" DMD area, many of the PuP-Pack original tables are being set up to support that now.

Most of the time, the community considers it to be charging for the tables if they sell a cabinet with all the software already loaded, which still falls outside the "noncommercial use only" part of the Visual Pinball license. They're not biting your head off here, what's going on is they're trying to warn you is that it'll be much harder to get support (and it will be harder to upgrade if you get into needing to download and adjust tables) from the community - at best the recommendation will be to nuke what software the cabinet builder put on there and start fresh. And that will involve a much steeper learning curve because you then also have to figure out what configuration the cabinet's "toys" needs to be functional.

And if you're going down this route, check very carefully... some of these cabinet sellers are still using VP9 (that's the case for the minicabs for one here in Denver), because they can put a weaker (and cheaper) computer in the box than is required for VPX. VPX is lightyears better than VP9.

Simple; many people really want a "ready to play when I get it home" solution. These are the same people who buy prebuilt desktop computers with shovelware installed. And the time to get it factors in as well... I'm sure the one local seller I've seen at the Pinball Showdown does get quite a few sales on the floor of machines he brings because it's almost instant gratification.

Yeah, my next "toy" install (once our income stream is properly stabilized, which may be post-COVID at this point) is going to be the Surround Sound Feedback. The only four solenoids in the cabinet right now are the chimes and knocker, all of which have a particular "thud" and "ding" that's hard to recreate, but I don't think I really need any other solenoids right now.

We bought a pair of chairs from an arcade racing game (off a Ridge Racer V cabinet), and once I wired the speakers and subwoofers in those up to appropriate amps and tied it into the sound system of our Console Room, it changed the nature of arcade driving games for me, and showed me that even a basic Surround Sound Feedback setup will work wonders for the game.

As noted, VirtuaPin is about the only real legitimate manufacturer of pincabs, but you'll still need to load the software yourself, although Noah does provide support for doing so. He also sells from basic flat pack kits that you skin yourself and assemble, all the way up to assembled and wired, you just install the software and tables.

I've heard good things about the zebsboards kits.

Everything is a little DIY; with Visual Pinball, part of this stems from the fact that the software is released under a NON-COMMERCIAL license, which means the vast majority of the Lazy Commercial Pincab Sellers out there aren't really selling something they can legally offer, and that's before you get into the IP content of the included tables; I really doubt any of them have negotiated, say, a license for Pinball Pool.

The one benefit is that there's a number of people offering everything from information for those who want to go 100% DIY, all the way up to basically drop in modules for things like feedback devices. But the common element is that, because of the nature of the hobby, many who are in the hobby prefer that new folks take at least a little effort in assembling their cabs rather than buying one "fully ready" that, well, may not actually be that. Most of the Lazy Commercial Pincab Sellers aren't doing major assembly line manufacturing, they're building these things a few at a time, many times out of whatever they might have at hand, and if you're lucky you might get something that's consistent with the past 5 or 6 they've built, more likely there might be something done that's unique to the specific build and causes support headaches later on.

My understanding from what little he's said about it recently is that it may have been a verbal contract deal that bit him in the ass when the house of cards SkitB built collapsed. I get the impression that he got caught up in it because of the poorly arranged contract to make the SkitB Predator cabinets, and the efforts to yank back any and all possible assets that were poorly documented as transferred during the bankruptcy proceedings with the assumption that they were transferred to keep them out of the bankruptcy.

...seriously, using CAT5 cable? Is that capable of dealing with 5V or 12V, much less anything else? Sure, it might make cable management easy, but it kind of misses the mark when he uses such long runs and it has to loop anyway. No wonder the solenoids don't work.

This isn't to say I did a neat job in some of the wiring (my button wiring is a definite spaghetti mess), but my home built setup looks neater outside of that, if only because I've done some specific management.

And everything in my cabinet is mounted much more solidly than that subwoofer, except maybe the playfield screen... because I anticipate moving the cabinet.

Meh. Took Zaccaria Pinball off the virtual cabinet after three and a half weeks of multiple screen support being outright broken (crash to desktop broken), and their only official communications have not been via Steam, but on their DISCORD CHANNEL. Looks like they had to be needled into it on Facebook, and any mention of the fix timeline (at least another week) have been brought over to the Steam discussion threads by community members, not staff.

I would cut a LOT more slack if they'd have been communicative about the timeline of the fix ON THE PLATFORM ON WHICH IT IS PROVIDED. While I have a Discord account, I'm not signing up to servers just to keep up on support topics that, again, should be ON THE PLATFORM ON WHICH IT IS PROVIDED.

Be very careful... a number of the Chinese virtual pinball sellers have the included computer so locked down you basically can't do anything like add tables without having to go to them to have the change made.

I'm fortunate enough that I've gotten mine "dialed in", and even then it requires work, and I still have features I'm trying to add on. I've got an RGB flasher bar to install, a playfield screen to upgrade, and solenoids to consider. About the only thing I don't have to do is tune pop bumpers.

I'm not sure the price of "fully configured" is going to go up appreciably. I suspect VPB going away will only result in a rounding error compared to the effect of the supply and demand issues on the electronics supply chain; many of the Lazy Commercial Sellers aren't selling to the community, they're selling to people who have no real clue.

They tend to look a bit squatty because a number of them are designed to use the portion of a 16:9 screen that isn't filled with a representation of a traditional DMD.

Oh, hey, 5 1/2 weeks after Magic Pixel broke Zaccaria Pinball's cabinet support, they FINALLY have their "external social media" guy post on the Steam thread about the break - TOO LATE FOR ME. My cabinet isn't getting the software reinstalled, I'm not buying DLC even for my desktop (I really do play my virtual pinball almost exclusively on my cabinet), I consider the window CLOSED now.

When I replied to that post, I was polite but direct about the problem... or rather, the combination of problems.

Any single issue would have been tolerable; Lack of Steam communication when the product is sold on Steam (they do most of it via Discord); Breaking cabinet support because they didn't test with more than 1 monitor (I find it hard to believe they don't have at least one multiple monitor setup, even right now with staff probably having to work from home, and I've found this isn't the only time they've broken that support); delay in the fix because they want to roll out one patch instead of two or more. It's the combination of all three that makes it untenable to me.

I have enough pinball between FX3, Pinball Wicked, Pro Pinball Timeshock, and Visual Pinball (none of which break cabinet support for weeks on end), that I can easily get by, especially since someone finished up a Visual Pinball build of Time Machine, and it makes my general project of "curate the cabinet's table list" much easier because that's 100+ tables I don't have to sort through now.

Did a little update video on my cabinet Radiant Silverball.

So, after the whole fiasco that Magic Pixel had showing me that I'm NOT in their target market (Update #85 at the end of February broke their so-called cabinet support in Zaccaria Pinball, and it took two months and rolling it into the next table release to fix it), and never have been, I have the primary criteria for Commercial Pinball Simulators I invest in going forward:

First: Direct Table Load without added scripts or software. Without this, it's not Cabinet Mode.

Second: Support for THREE monitors. Not two. Not one. Three. Support for monitors past that will be accepted, but three is the required minimum.

Third: NOT EARLY ACCESS. No more of this "years in Early Access" garbage, I won't look at software that has the Early Access tag on it.

Fourth: Robust update process. Unless the software is "mature", I should see updates that do NOT provide content but instead fix bugs and breaks. And no update should break criteria One and Two.

Fifth: I need a history to look at, preferably at least six months. This means no launch software.

Sixth: Software is either a single really good table, or the DLC is at least five pretty good tables. This kind of feeds into the fifth thing.

Note that yes, this list very explicitly excludes Zaccaria as software for me, if only because now we have a list of "bad flags" to look for with that software. Note that certain classes of software, like Demon's Tilt, doesn't get compared to this list because those aren't "cabinet installs" for me, but anything that's even remotely like batting a real ball around, like Pinball Wicked, Pro Pinball Timeshock and Pinball FX do fall into the category that gets compared to the list going forward. And few of them are flexible, this is what I need to evaluate on going forward to avoid throwing money away.

I don't have a good feel for how much I've spent on pinball DLC over the past 6-7 years, but it's been substantial. I've built a cabinet that we're getting into $2K spent on it, and I can't justify spending $10 here, $30 there, for stuff I might not be able to run on that cabinet properly. I can definitely spend that future DLC money on toys for the cabinet instead, I'll get a better return on my money right now.

I don't think 4K is absolutely essential, but it's actually a pretty good bump from HD. Granted, we upgraded from an old 47" LG HD television to a 49" LG 4K television in Radiant Silverball, so your mileage may vary slightly with the 43". I did back of the envelope calculations for ours that we went from around 43 pixels per inch to almost 90 pixels per inch, which is significant when you're less than 2 feet from the screen.

Odds are good for me that I won't build an HD cabinet going forward, even for a friend. At full sizes, there is every reason to go 4K. Once my friend gets back into town (he's going to be living in the mountains of Colorado in the summer, and in Arizona in the winter), he's going to get to see the 4K in action, and he's played pinball on Radiant Silverball when it was only HD. He does generally consider 4K to be less than an upgrade for typical uses (television watching, playing games from the couch), but I'm sure he'll consider it more of one as a pinball playfield.

Generally, if they say they include the games, unless it's Arcade1Up or At Games, it's likely they're including content that they have not negotiated the licenses to. In many cases, they won't even tech support their product, instead pointing the purchaser at the community websites for the support they should be providing, which is doubly skeevy.

I vastly prefer VPUniverse over VPForums, but I use both.

To add:

virtualpinballdownloads is a site that A) scraped a lot of content and posted it without permission, while trying to claim it's for preservation and B) has puppet accounts claiming to be the likes of people like Terry Red and others to try to add a veneer of legitimacy.

Like most, I'm still stinging a bit from vpinball closing down - yeah, I get the reasoning, but it did little but add a claim of legitimacy to the folks that caused the problem in the first place. There are some authors that refused to upload (for legitimate reasons) to vpforums, and vpuniverse was going through some pains, so vpinball was the place to be at the time, and some of them haven't migrated to vpuniverse, or worse, have just moved to Facebook, where I gather that they're at least in the position where they can yank files at any time if they feel the need, or can control the access a lot more. Most of the preferred Facebook groups will ban people if they're even giving even a hint they may be a Lazy Commercial Pincab Seller (my term of people selling virtual pinball machines commercially without dealing with the licensing correctly - which means no Visual Pinball because too many have gone through with just selling without asking and ruined that for everyone) or Scummy Scraper Reposter.

Join me as I install Surround Sound Feedback in Radiant Silverball:

So, don't order this sort of motor, not even for an unloaded gear motor, mine burned out last night, and I'd only installed it back in AUGUST of this year. So a lifespan of four months. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYH1ZDH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=11573

I can attest for that... I had to replace my vpin's leaf switches because I used the higher voltage ones when I built it, and they wound up being unreliable. I suspect the resistance of the contacts was at the threshold point for "too much resistance to complete the circuit" given that the voltage is less than a tenth of what the leafs were designed to handle, and cleaning them would restore full service for a short time. I specifically looked for "low voltage" for the replacements, and they've been absolutely rock solid since.