136 replies to this topic

[Steve Paradis]

Dear FP firends,

I'm posting this a long time in advance and will repeat it on a regular basis this year so everyone will be prepare when the time come.

What are we sure about concerning this topic? 1st day of january 2011, the actual version of FP will expire. Which only mean that, if you want to keep playing FP
tables made prior to this Date, you will only have to manually set back your PC time to an earlier date. period

There are some "unknow variables" still, here they are :

In one discussion I had with Black around september 2009, he specificaly told me to stop doing TOYS with the DEV version because it is NOT a feature that would be present in a subsequent version of Future Pinball.

This can means 3 things:
1.On january 1st, the mood is back to normal and we are granted with the VERY SAME feature in future pinball
so everything work as normal.

2.TOY Feature is remove and a lot of tables are corrupted. Opening them will Crash FP. Some of the old FP dudes, reported me that it already happen in the past and we don'T want to lose any precious gems.

3. Nobody care because everyone will stick with the Actual version 1.9.20081225 (!)

To prevent any problem to anyone, I suggest that IF a new version of FP come up, you install it in a different FOLDER just in case.
until it is proven that no problem is reported. Also, those who create table should mention in the "table infos" that is is compatible with v1.9.20081225

Thank you for your time.

Steve

Edited by Steve Paradis, 13 January 2010 - 08:54 AM.

[lupine]

"Black" scares me for some reason.

[TnP]

Has anyone set their computer clock forwards to 2011 to see what happens?

[Gravy]

Has anyone set their computer clock forwards to 2011 to see what happens?

Yep, it expires with a message, but setting it back again enables it to function correctly so it doesnt set any flag in the registry or anything nasty.

[hgpinball]

In VP-Man you have an option to "Avoid expiration" in "File->Set default launching options". Following the balloon help this is applicable to VP/VPM. Maybe Fartian, who is the author of VP-Man, can give an information if this feature is working for FP as well. At least that would be a workaround...

EDIT: just tested it by setting the date to 2011 - and it doesn't work for FP. May be a good feature to be integrated into future versions of VP-Man...

Edited by hgpinball, 13 January 2010 - 03:55 PM.

[Headlesshobbs]

I wasn't too thrilled with the expiration date of the last set and had to update. One of Sphere's tables was all messed up when I saw the bonus multipliers were showing incorrectly.

[Steve Paradis]

I wasn't too thrilled with the expiration date of the last set and had to update. One of Sphere's tables was all messed up when I saw the bonus multipliers were showing incorrectly.

THat's what I'm talking about, I'm sure we all have other interesting thing to do than fixing all of our tables to fit a new version. An "Auto Set date back feature" in hyperPin or VPman would do it. I know BadBoyBill, I can ask him if it could be in the plan. I don't know Fartian Though so if anyone does, maybe bring this to his attention?

Steve

[megamike36]

THat's what I'm talking about, I'm sure we all have other interesting thing to do than fixing all of our tables to fit a new version. An "Auto Set date back feature" in hyperPin or VPman would do it. I know BadBoyBill, I can ask him if it could be in the plan. I don't know Fartian Though so if anyone does, maybe bring this to his attention?

Steve

BadBoyBill? Sounds like a Hacker
Well Iwouldn't mind if there was a "crack-Patch" that changes the date from 2011 to 3011. Provided ther will be no update by Black.
On the other Hand it would be cool - and the better way - if a Table-Launcher (I'm using VP Launcher) could roll the Date back, launch the table an on exiting restore the correct Date.

Mike

[Steve Paradis]

Also, little side note...
the expiration work only to START FP.. not for table to run...so you have only to do this once in a while.

Do this little test :

To begin with, imagine your in 2011 (put your PC clock to somewhere forward in time) then start FP (won't work, this is what we expect).

NOW

1. Set you PC back to 2010, Start FP (now it work)
2. KEEP FP OPEN. Restore the date to where it was in 2011
3. FP STILL WORK!!! and it will as long as you keep it open, even if you are switching table, open/close table, create library ect...

So this is kind of a good news for table maker. Myself I have 3d Software that need to be in sync with a time dongle to work, so
now, knowing this, you can use FP and your actual software AT THE SAME TIME without worrying too much.





Steve

Edited by Steve Paradis, 19 January 2010 - 08:43 PM.

[Pinfan]

[...] An "Auto Set date back feature" in hyperPin or VPman would do it. I know BadBoyBill, I can ask him if it could be in the plan. I don't know Fartian Though so if anyone does, maybe bring this to his attention?

Well, if I understood well Fartian said that the "avoid expiration" feature is ALREADY implemented in VP-MAN.
See this thread: http://www.vpforums....i...20&start=20

EDIT: I just installed latest release of VP-Man, and tried.... but it seems that what Fartian claimed in the above referenced thread doesn't work :-(


Cheers,
M.E.A.

Edited by Pinfan, 31 January 2010 - 04:02 PM.

[hgpinball]

Hi Pinfan,

Vp-Man's 'Avoid Expiration' feature was meant for VP/VPM - it doesn't work for FP. Reading Steve's reply, what could work would be a short script that does exactly what Steve proposes: reset the date to let's say 2010, start FP and immediately (or after a short waiting time) restore the actual date.

[Pinfan]

Hi Pinfan,
Vp-Man's 'Avoid Expiration' feature was meant for VP/VPM - it doesn't work for FP.

Yes, thanks for highlighting it. The reason why I posted here was that I just hoped that Fartian was referring to something just implemented on the latest release of VP-MAN but I just finished a message exchange with him (in the referenced thread http://www.vpforums....amp;#entry38692 and clarified the point, unfortunately getting confirmation that you are right also with respect to the current VP-MAN version.
Anyway Fartian is now aware of our request and (even if not able to work on it right now) may take the point in consideration for something to be released before 2010

Edited by Pinfan, 03 February 2010 - 02:57 PM.

[destruk]

Hi Pinfan,
Vp-Man's 'Avoid Expiration' feature was meant for VP/VPM - it doesn't work for FP.

Yes, thanks for highlighting it. The reason why I posted here was that I just hoped that Fartian was referring to something just implemented on the latest release of VP-MAN but I just finished a message exchange with him (in the referenced thread http://www.vpforums....i...0&start=20) and clarified the point, unfortunately getting confirmation that you are right also with respect to the current VP-MAN version.
Anyway Fartian is now aware of our request and (even if not able to work on it right now) may take the point in consideration for something to be released before 2010

before 2011 I hope. 2010 is already here!

[Pinfan]

before 2011 I hope. 2010 is already here!

You are right, I meant before the end of 2010.

[Captain Caveman]

1st post..

Thats easy to get around just with a simple batch file..

set BEFOREDATE=%date:~%
date 01-01-10
"c:\games\future pinball\future pinball.exe"
date %BEFOREDATE%

[Steve Paradis]

1st post..

Thats easy to get around just with a simple batch file..

set BEFOREDATE=%date:~%
date 01-01-10
"c:\games\future pinball\future pinball.exe"
date %BEFOREDATE%

Hey! if I send you my Homebrew FrontEnd for FP could you please just see if you can Implement this somewhere. The front End Itself is in Flash but for the "Call to action", I use AutoIt to launch tables. I could then post my FrontEnd Here for everyone to enjoy.

[Captain Caveman]

You should be able to do it in AutoIt too.. send it someone where and post me the link in private.. i'll take a look at it sometime this weekend..

[Captain Caveman]

Hey Steve.. you have 2 options to get it working with your frontend.. you can have a batch file run your loader like so..

set BEFOREDATE=%date:~%
date 01-03-07
"c:\games\FuturePinball\myfrontend.exe"
date %BEFOREDATE%

or you can modify each autoit script and recompile them .. here's a working autoit script ..

#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>
#include <Date.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
$currentday=@MDAY
$currentmonth=@MON
$currentyear=@YEAR
$tNewDate = _SetDate($currentday(),$currentmonth(), 2010)
RunWait ('C:\Games\FuturePinball\FuturePinball.exe -arcaderender /open "C:\Games\FuturePinball\Tables\3angels.fpt" /play /Exit')
_SetDate($currentday(),$currentmonth(),$currentyear())

enjoy..

[Steve Paradis]

Hey Steve.. you have 2 options to get it working with your frontend.. you can have a batch file run your loader like so..

set BEFOREDATE=%date:~%
date 01-03-07
"c:\games\FuturePinball\myfrontend.exe"
date %BEFOREDATE%

or you can modify each autoit script and recompile them .. here's a working autoit script ..

#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>
#include <Date.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
$currentday=@MDAY
$currentmonth=@MON
$currentyear=@YEAR
$tNewDate = _SetDate($currentday(),$currentmonth(), 2010)
RunWait ('C:\Games\FuturePinball\FuturePinball.exe -arcaderender /open "C:\Games\FuturePinball\Tables\3angels.fpt" /play /Exit')
_SetDate($currentday(),$currentmonth(),$currentyear())

enjoy..

since my frontEnd is not really popular, I had another Idea. why not make a little app that just behave like the FP "Shortcut" out of this?
can you give it a try CaptainCaveman?

I can test it

[Captain Caveman]

Just create a batch file and save it as a shortcut and set the shortcut to run minimized so command prompt window isn't shown

open up notepad and paste this in in it.. and save it as fp.cmd in future pinballs directory.. then set a shortcut to it...

@echo off
set BEFOREDATE=%date:~%
date 01-01-10
"c:\games\future pinball\future pinball.exe"
date %BEFOREDATE%

Edited by Captain Caveman, 07 February 2010 - 12:08 AM.