Pinball Simulation FAQ (Version 1.5 2001-05-04) http://www.pcpinball.com/ by Sam Gabrielsson This is a compilation of questions/answers related to pinball simulations that seem to appear more often than others, both in rgp and in my mailbox. Any additions to the FAQ should be send to sam @ pcpinball . com or using ICQ to (UIN:1466199). the latest version of this faq can always be found at: www.pcpinball.com/files/faq/pbsimfaq.txt updated versions of it will be posted once or twice a year if I remember (first version written 1999-11-xx sometime). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 * What is a pinball simulation and what is a pinball game? 2 * I can't understand why people prefere pinball simulations over real pinballs!? 3 * Did I just see a cow on my screen? 4 * My serial code for Royal Flush (which I bought legally) doesn't work, it is 12 characters but the game only accept 11 characters!!! 5 * Which is the best pinball for computers? 6a * Whatabout making a website with reviews of pinball simulations? b * Where can I download pinball demos? c * Where can I find rulesheets for _this_ pinball simulation? d * Is there any place that lists upcoming pinball simulation releases? 7 * I have a question conserning Space Cadet / The Win95 Pinball / Full Tilt! ? 8a * What simulations of real pinball tables are there? b * What is Visual Pinball? 9 * Is there a pinball simulation mailing list? 10 * What exactly happened to Amtex and their announced pinball simulations? 11 * How do I unlock all the operators menu options in "Pro Pinball: Timeshock!" ? 12 * I bought Pinball Madness 2, it includes Timeshock! but I get no music?? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 * What is a pinball simulation and what is a pinball game? If you want a definition on it: A Pinball Simulation is a serious attempt at creating a realistic pinball table for the computer (with realistic ball and flipper physics, theme and table layout, i.e the Pro Pinball series). A Pinball Game is an attempt at just creating something similar to a pinball table for the computer with a totally impossible layout in reality, could be tables with dragons burning up the ball, lava floods, ptereodactyles (how do you spell it) flying around with your ball, silly little sprites walking across the table, the physics usually aren't especially realistic... you get the picture (in example I can mention Sierra's 3D Ultra Pinball series). Though who knows what is realistic or not now that Pinball 2000 is coming! 2 * I can't understand why people prefere pinball simulations over real pinballs!? A now and then appearing post on rgp, well who says we all prefere sims over real pinballs, some prefere sims because they are cheaper and easier to handle, some just love simulations for no apparant reason (people like me), some like real pinballs and simulations. Why, just accept that there is different likings! I don't think there is so many that prefere sims over the real thing so much they wont touch a real pinball, myself I would never (though who knows) have gotten an interest in real pinballs if it hadn't been because of my interest in simulations. 3 * Did I just see a cow on my screen? Yepp, really popular thing this with cows and pinballs. In almost any newer real pinball in the arcade today there is some hidden feature or special target combination or something (sometimes a cow just appears stupidly and for no reason in a video mode or something similar) that awards a COW, so the same goes for pinball simulations. Whenever you find the cow or what you want to call it you usually hear a cow roam or a cow appears on the DMD (somewhere at least). You usually don't get so much score or so whenever the cow is awarded, but who cares, you've found the cow! :) There is a history behind the first cows apparance in a pinball but I think you can find out more about that in the real pinball FAQ. And by the way, there is a great platform game called CowQuest where you steer a little cow trough five dangerous and mystic levels (yeah right), do check it out (I made it :P): http://www.pcpinball.com/files/misc/games/cowquest.zip and here's a cow screensaver while I'm at it http://www.pcpinball.com/files/misc/screensavers/cowsaver.zip 4 * My serial code for Royal Flush (which I bought legally) doesn't work, it is 12 characters but the game only accept 11 characters!!! Some version of Royal Flush includes a 12 characters serial number needed to play the game. The game though only allows you to enter 11 characters long serial codes. This is the correct serial code to use: YRZ1Z6BSPTN (Y,R,Z,one,Z,six,B,S,P,T,N) 5 * Which is the best pinball for computers? Generally considered on rec.games.pinball the best pinball simulation is the Pro Pinball series released by Cunning Development and published primarily by Empire Interactive (who aren't that skilled at getting things out fast in the US). The series currently include these tables: Pro Pinball - The Web (pptw) Pro Pinball - Timeshock! (t!) Pro Pinball - Big Race U.S.A (BRUSA) all three available for pc/mac, I'd recommend timeshock (the web if you are new at pinball) See the quetsion "Whatabout making a website with reviews of pinball simulations?" for information on where you can find reviews of the three above pinballs. Another good resource for finding out which is the most popular pinball is looking at the vote charts for the best pinball simulation which can be found on the url below (follow the links to WBP): http://www.pcpinball.com/club/events.html 6a * Whatabout making a website with reviews of pinball simulations? 6b * Where can I download pinball demos? 6c * Where can I find rulesheets for _this_ pinball simulation? 6d * Is there any place that lists upcoming pinball simulation releases? Yepp, the place(s) to visit on the web is/are: http://www.pcpinball.com/ demos, patches: http://www.pcpinball.com/files/ the rest of the web, i.e www.adrenalinevault.com etc reviews: http://www.pcpinball.com/reviews/ http://www.lastbandit.com/pinrevue.html rulesheets: http://www.pcpinball.com/guides/ upcoming releases: http://www.pcpinball.com/news/oracle/index.html 6e * Isn't the above advertisement for a website? Yepp, mine (pcpinball.com) :), but you asked for it (it's a pretty non-commercial site anyway)! 7 * I have a question conserning Space Cadet / The Win95 Pinball / Full Tilt! ? Yes, Space Cadet is that Win95 Pinball. Space Cadet is one of the tables featured in the pinball package Full Tilt! 1 released by Maxis. Space Cadet is also the so called Win95 pinball included with PLUS! for Win95. For more detailed answers to Space Cadet related answers see the Space Cadet FAQ: www.pcpinball.com/files/faq/ft1faq.txt (Space Cadet FAQ) 8a * What simulations of real pinball tables is there? A number of simulations of real pinball tables have been made over the years. Some are for older computers so it might be hard to get hold of those. During 2000/2001 a pinball editor "Visual Pinball" by Randy Davis appeared and a number of remakes of real pinballs have since been released as Visual Pinball Tables (VPT). See questions 8b for more information. Below is a list of simulations/emulations of real pinballs released more or less commercially. Titles released under the real tables name - Eight Ball Deluxe (pc/mac) original publisher: Amtex - Royal Flush (pc/mac) original publisher: Amtex The mac version of RF is created by Gerard Putter and available as freeware: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/Royal%20Flush/RoyalFlush.Bin - Pinbot (8bit nintendo) - High Speed (gameboy) - High Speed II: The Getaway (gameboy) Titles released in combination with other tables Package name: Pinball Jam (Atari Lynx) Includes: - Elvira - Police Force Package name: Microsoft Pinball Arcade (pc) Developer/Publisher: Mir Dialouge/Microsoft Includes: - Baffle Ball: - Humpty Dumpty - Knockout - Slick Chick - Spirit of '76 - Haunted House - Cue Ball Wizard 8b * What is Visual Pinball? Visual Pinball by Randy Davis is a great Pinball Editor that allows the user to create a custom pinball table whichs rules and functionality is controlled through a vbscript. Check http://www.randydavis.com/vp/ for more information on the editor. Since the release of VP there's been appearing a number of VP remakes of real pinball tables, some remakes (simulations/emulations if you so will) that willing enthusiasts have created are of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Addams Family". Another interesting program is Visual PinMAME32, this programs makes it possible to display the dmd animations and play the sound from a real pinball's ROM file inside a VP table. The result of a wellmade VPT of a real pinball (such as TZ) together with the sound and dmd animations from the real pinball itself is quite simply stunning! Some news articles at www.pcpinball.com to start out at: http://www.pcpinball.com/news/articles/a0060.html - Visual Pinball http://www.pcpinball.com/news/articles/a0065.html - VP/vPinMAME32/TZ http://www.pcpinball.com/news/articles/a0058.html - PinMAME32 9 * Is there a pinball simulation mailing list? Yes, Gregory A. Swarthout maintains one. Sign up for it at: http://www.pcpinball.com/club/psmlist.html 10 * What exactly happened to Amtex and their announced pinball simulations? Amtex released in total three pinball simulations, Royal Flush (RF) and Eight Ball Deluxe (EBD). They also released a third pinball, Tristan, though it wasn't a emulation of a real pinball. RF was release for DOS by AMTEX. Later in 1998 it was released for the mac as freeware. Why? To summarize the programmer who was hired to port the pc version of RF never got payed, he finished the conversion though and decided to release it as freeware. See the below url for a full explanation: http://www.pcpinball.com/news/articles/a0012.html Eight Ball Deluxe was released for the PC and MAC by Amtex, the mac port was made by LittleWing (www.littlewing.co.jp). In their releases of RF and EBD Amtex advertised some other simulations of real pinballs they had planned to make (Fireball and Funhouse, don't know if they had planned any other), none of these came to be though because Amtex went out of business (a lot can be written about that, but lets just settle with that they went out of business, dropped dead). To my knowledge no versions (betas, alphas etc) of any kind exist of these announced pinball simulations. EBD, RF and Tristan are still for sale as budget I belive, they can be hard to get hold of though. Try to be on the lookout for a package "Pinball Deluxe" published by Softkey Jewel, it includes are Amtex pinball releases. 11 * How do I unlock all the operators menu options in "Pro Pinball: Timeshock!" ? This "cheat" lets you unlock all the operator menu features in timeshock! right away (you usually have to wait for 24 hours of gameplay before they all become unlocked). It is possible you have to repeat this procedure each time you restart timeshock!: Go to the operators menu, and select starting time-zone as random (2.2.1), then go to switch test for timezone lock delta (3.1.47), and hold both flipper buttons down for 2 seconds. After this, all features should be unlocked. 12 * I bought Pinball Madness 2, it includes Timeshock! but I get no music?? Encore Software, who released this pinball compilation, decided to strip the music from the Timeshock! cd, supposedly in favour of including the Pinball Builder editor or something else. Simply put, it sucks! [EOF]