So you're telling me you have something in 3 weeks that John himself couldn't do in 4 years?
Bravo! I love this thread!

Chris

I have only one complaint....I am not seeing enough beer in the photos!

Looking Good!

You guys are fast!

Please tell me you're not using MDF, you'll hate yourself later.

The easy part is done now.
Lets see some real progress next week.

Nice project, to do the second "despicable me"-pin..

Keep on

The first one was an complete home-made-pinballmachine by Brennraum..

look at http://www.flippermarkt.de/community/forum/showthread.php?t=104485

Greetings, Olli

you need too add bannana decals to any drop targets

THIS.

image.jpg

awesome ..........did not think about bannana flippers

Oh yes. I like all the designers for one reason or another, but Python was far more animated and you could just imagine that his mind never stopped. Ever. I really wish I had gotten the chance to meet him.

Loving your project! Enjoy the ride!

Chris

MDF bad idea even for prototyping. As you screw into it it creates a little hill and mechs won't sit flush, this is a bigger issue if you have to start moving things around, e.g. to adjust an angle, move a post, etc. also when when you remove a screw, it makes the 'hill' bigger and then you need to sand it down and that just becomes annoying. Also if you do re-insert a screw, MDF does not hold all that well with a hard firing mech, like a sling shot, so they will loosen up a lot quicker. Save yourself the aggravation and on the next iteration move to plywood.

Not only that bit there is no strength on it. When building a prototype you'll be lifting the playfield a lot. With all the weight on it don't be surprised when it snaps in half.

Looks like a great project guys, I love the custom head!!

I think Brian Madden is really under-selling the MPF. It's an awesome tool, super easy to use and "program" your game, and you'll get the professional looking results and performance you want.

Also, I've used both PROC and FAST hardware in my games, and if it's not too late for you guys, you really should consider going the FAST route. It's super easy to setup and use, works with multiple computer platforms (Windows and Linux, including the single-board stuff like Beagle Bone and RPi2), it's compatible with the Mission Pinball Framework, and best of all, it's "driverless". Meaning, no funky installation of drivers that don't work half the time.

The FAST guys are always adding new features, and currently support NeoPixle-style RGB LEDs natively on their driver boards.

Hope this helps!

Brian C.

That sounds REALLY promising! Pricing doesn't look bad either
https://squareup.com/market/fast-pinball-llc

Sounds like the documentation is still behind
http://fastpinball.com/hardware

Have to follow this!

I'm also using the FAST platform for Spaceballs, so as I learn, I'm more than willing to help answer any questions that come up if I can.

I'll be leveraging the MPF as well, but in a slightly different way.

Hey Brian,

Not sure if you're aware that I wrote a new windows installer for the P-ROC software suite that seems to have fixed the installation headaches for most everyone on Windows. I don't think saying that the "drivers don't work have the time" is even slightly accurate. It's the installation process with the old installer that was problematic for folks.

Anyway, I applaud Brian for not trying to hijack this awesome progress thread with a sales pitch for MPF or the Fast vs P-ROC nonsense. Plenty of other threads have this covered already. Since Fast has now started shipping hardware, I'm eager to hear from more real users what concrete benefit the Fast boards have, but again, not in this thread specifically.

That's on me. I had a family vacation coming (on it now) and I was running out of time to get ready to go. Proud to say that programming, testing, packing and shipping FAST hardware was the time suck. Some projects needed their hardware with hopes to make it to Expo in October with their games!

I will be chilling at my in-laws place this week with documentation #1 on the list. For those who have already bought hardware we have a set of Google Docs we share that includes all the FAST Pin Protocol documentation for direct hardware communication (it is what the MPF uses to talk to our boards) as well as quickstart guides and diagrams. A bit crude still, but gets the job done. I intend for the public docs to be prettier. The early users have been awesome asking questions and making suggestions that will make the cleaned up set of public documents better than we could have done in a first pass.

I would love to see a rad title like Minions running on FAST. My wife is a huge fan. I had gone as far as working up a Minions art package for my portable pinball machine to dress it up for Expo last year, but ran out of time.

FAST or not, I love seeing more people making new pinball! Don't give up!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

MPF runs on both. P-ROC is compatible with your WCS's WPC-89 driver board so you could avoid buying driver boards or switch boards (if you were so inclined).

There's a good thread where I try to break down the Fast is cheaper pricing myth, here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/custom-game-p3-roc-or-fast#post-2580772

To be clear, they're priced about the same for custom builds. If you're able to reuse an driver board from a WPC, WPC-S, or WPC-95 era machine, I believe the P-ROC will come out to be cheaper.

There's a lot in that thread. I think some of it is helpful.

I am biased. I've been using P-ROC for nearing on four years and have spent a lot of time contributing code to that community (including PyProcGameHD+SkeletonGame and PyProcGameVGA before it).

I'm loathe to come into threads and advertise PyProcGameHD or the P-ROC/P3-ROC, but misinformation seems to always pull me in to defend it.

It took me 30-35 hours to convert all game code, create new assets to use the newer pyprocgameHD, and I was flat out on it. It is worth every last minute of my time though.

Nice!

Robet

Very cool. The FAST WPC Controller fits the exact same footprint as the WPC controller you removed. This was a big deal to us because we wanted the user to have all the existing wiring line right up to where it plugged into the old controller, plus you get the control of 256 RGB LEDs built in.

PM me when you have a minute and we can get you in on the first batch of FAST WPC Controllers.

image.jpg

Aaron
FAST Pinball

nice progress guys, looking forward to the next instalment

Following!!!

Something seems wrong with the Wiki. All the content is still there if you click on the source but the pages aren't being rendered properly. Weird. This was happening on someone else's site I visited last week. I'll let Gerry know.

The documentation page with wiring details (connector mappings) is here:
http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/index.php/products/p-roc/documentation

If you're running Windows, I have written a new one-click installer to get you going, here:
http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?topic=626.msg14604#msg14604

I can link you to lots of great information about programming pyprocgame or PyProcGameHD, too.

wow. that backbox looks amazing. This is the kind of innovation pinball needs.

Ooo la la!

Ditto, love the new back box design, truly unique.

Have fun with the PROC, its a great product with a huge support group ready and willing to provide help and encouragement. I LOVE despicable me and cant wait to see what you guys do with this.

where will the dmd go or will it be placed inside the playfield?

looking good fellas, keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!