56 replies to this topic

[Turn2]

Just because I haven't commented on this thread doesn't mean I ain't been following, of course when i saw Gorgar I had no choice but to follow this thread

 

But regardless how much of the artwork survives this restore, I think you have done an awesome job. I wish my restorative skills were as keen as yours.

 

I never was any good at Gorgar, but the memories it brings back when I hear the sound of this table starting up.......  Well that is what makes it my favorite table.

[BzZziLLa]

Hahah thanks for the vote of confidence. However, I'm not sure my skills are real keen. Even after weeks of restorations, she still won't be the prettiest girl at the dance. But she'll put out the second you want her to!

[BzZziLLa]

Here is a perfect example of how mistakes are made. I learned the hard way that these two guys don't mix:

 

After spraying just about everything with this clear coat, all the silver paint began to instantly flake and peel up.

 

I scraped as much as I could off the coin door, but it's still a flat out disaster.

 

I'll have to strip everything and start over. I threw all this crap into a box to deal with later.

 

On a positive note, it looks like i'll be able to save the skulls. I covered them with rubber cement before priming and simply peeled it off when the paint dried. I'll have to put another layer of rubber cement on before I do the black.

Edited by BzZziLLa, 04 January 2015 - 04:32 PM.

[BzZziLLa]

Got the first layer of black on:

 

The skulls have another layer of rubber cement over them.. I'm crossing my fingers that this work again.

[BzZziLLa]

My buttons came in today. I did a quick test run to see how they look on the cab.

 

I still haven't decided if I want to add the magnasave buttons.

[Nemo]

Ouch ! That paint disaster sure sucked ! Nah, i skipped the magnasave buttons, not too many tables use it anyway.

Did intend to install them but just did not find it necessary in the end...

[BzZziLLa]

Nah, i skipped the magnasave buttons, not too many tables use it anyway.

Did intend to install them but just did not find it necessary in the end...

 

Oh good. I thought that I was crazy for not seeing the point in them. I think that the cabinet looks much cleaner without them and that they would just confuse most people anyway. I considered using them for nudge buttons but that would probably just result in a lot of tilts for regular players.

[BzZziLLa]

I finally got around to do a little pre-wiring. It's starting to come together!

 

[BzZziLLa]

I built a test control panel out of an empty speaker box:

 

I went with the LED-Wiz+GP as my I/O controller. I figured that this would be efficient for my needs given that I only wanted to use a few buttons and the only force feedback devices I was going to use were LEDs. However, the initial keyboard input setup was riddled with problems. It took a full day of wiring, soldering, swapping around inputs, and configuring the keys to get everything working perfectly. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy... Well, setting it up for VP was a breeze. The problem was getting it to work with HP.

 

Ultimately, it took a combination of a couple methods to get everything running correctly. First I followed mameman23's advice:

 

 

tiny update for this week. glass is ordered, will be here next week. T moulding installed to other side of the head. standard buttons wired up.

currently sourcing shaker and solenoids this week.

Spent the day getting a ledwiz+gp working perfectly in both Hyperpin and VP. bit of a nightmare to start with but with some different key assignments its all working.

trick was as follows:
in hyperpins settings.ini I removed all the entries for the pinball wizard device, also removed the line in the keyboard settings for Genre (don't use it and was giving issue with the enter key). then mapped in the settings.ini file the UP and Down keys (left and right scroll in Hyperpin) to the left and right arrow keys (37,39).

the in Xpadder (free version), I mapped the left flipper button to both left shift and left arrow, and the right flipper to button to right shift and right arrow.

save all your settings and ini files, and working perfectly.

 

After doing this, it "kinda" worked correctly. However, I was still having issues with buttons executing multiple commands at once (even though they weren't programmed to in the config). For instance, the right flipper button was sometimes executing a table to start up as I was scrolling through the menu. The Launch Ball button was also triggering the flyer to pop up sometimes. Obviously, I couldn't be havin' that.

 

To get the config the rest of the way, I also followed some of granter's progress over at the HP forums:

http://www.hyperspin...ntroller-Inputs

 

So yea, it took a combination of tweaking XPadder and HP's Settings.ini, as well as swapping around the inputs on the LEDWIZ itself to get everything to work properly. For anybody reading this thread, I would suggest buying an ipac or keywiz for your button inputs and a regular ledwiz for your force feedback devices. Otherwise, be prepared for a lot of trial and error.

 

The LEDWIZ+GP is cool in concept, but its execution leaves a lot to be desired.

[BzZziLLa]

Uh yea... so last night I tested PinballX due to all of the issues with HP and the difference is night and day.. I was able to load all the artwork and tables that I was using in HP in a matter of minutes... boot times, table selection, table exiting, etc. are all lightning fast.. From what I read, Win 7 and HP don't play nicely with each other and I was living that nightmare every day. Every issue required hours of searching online forums for answers and a lot of one-off solutions.

 

My advice for newcomers is to do yourself a favor and go with PinballX from the start.

Edited by BzZziLLa, 13 January 2015 - 06:11 AM.

[Nemo]

Well i'm still on HP, dreading the migration to PinballX, just doing some hardware upgrades and playing my pin to death.

Not in the mood to try something new i think, software-wise that is. And also HP is performing reasonably at the moment.

 

Sigh... but yeah... some day i have to bite the bullet too...

[BzZziLLa]

If it's not broke, don't fix it!

 

But yea, for the record, PinballX was up and running in no time at all.

[Turn2]

I got the subscription with PinballX and it makes it super easy. It pulls all of the artwork in right from the game manager, very few things I have to add on my own.  It wasn't much and well worth the money IMHO.

 

Edit: a quick tip. If you have a color lcd instead of a real dmd and you have a wheel image but no DMD image, just copy your wheel image over. They looks pretty good as a DMD sign as well.

Edited by Turn2, 15 January 2015 - 03:35 AM.

[BzZziLLa]

I got the subscription with PinballX and it makes it super easy. It pulls all of the artwork in right from the game manager, very few things I have to add on my own.  It wasn't much and well worth the money IMHO.

I'm actually kinda dreading the artwork phase. Whenever I make a cabinet, I spend countless hours in photoshop making sure all the graphics are dialed in. I'm going to end up resizing and/or recreating all, if not most, of the backglass images. The playfield images and most of the wheels that I've found in the packs have been great. It's the backglasses that seem to look haphazard and not made for a widescreen.

 

 

Edit: a quick tip. If you have a color lcd instead of a real dmd and you have a wheel image but no DMD image, just copy your wheel image over. They looks pretty good as a DMD sign as well.

I've been toying around with different DMD solutions and I think I'm going to use FutureDMD. I have about 40-50 future pinball tables loaded right now and FutureDMD really brings those tables to life. And in PinballX it shows the table name and high scores as you're going through the tables. Although you can't load custom images into it, I think it's pretty cool. But who knows what I'll ultimately end up going with.

 

Building a vpin is a lot of work.

[BzZziLLa]

Alright... So there's not much of an update right now.. I've mostly been fooling around with the software side of things:

 

1. ditched HP for PinballX and haven't looked back

2. got future pinball up and running with dozens of games

3. been messing around with BAM for future pinball.. but since i'm not planning on getting an motion sensor, i may just give up on this

4. decided to go with futureDMD for my dmd needs.. it shows the game name and high scores while in pinballx and works as a great dmd while FP is running.. the VP dmd covers it up while those games are running

5. i've been recreating backbox art for most of the tables... mainly because i'm running my resolution at 1280x720 and the art in the packs is mostly 1280x1024 and low res

 

On the cabinet painting side of things.. I've been procrastinating.. Ever since that clear coat fiasco, i've been avoiding that stuff.. but now it's time to get back on the horse:

1. I bought some citristrip to get all that crap off and start fresh

2. I decided not to be lazy and take the side rails off so I can get a good finish on the rails and cabinet

 

That's all for now. I'll update when I get some painting done, which will be soon. I want this cabinet on it's legs!

[BzZziLLa]

I did some paint stripping with CitriStrip over the weekend so I can start painting everything over again.

 

 

I may end up springing for powder coating if round 2 of painting goes south again.

[BzZziLLa]

I mounted the screens in the backbox. It was somewhat challenging due to spacial issues, but I managed to get 'er done. A small victory, but a victory nevertheless.

 

 

I was considering building a new backbox to make my life easier, but my laziness got the best of me. I already foresee bezel issues, but we'll cross that bridge later.

[gtxjoe]

Cut a hole in the bottom of the back box so you can drop the dMD monitor down further.

[BzZziLLa]

Cut a hole in the bottom of the back box so you can drop the dMD monitor down further.

 

Yea... I was thinking about it. The Gorgar cabinet is a little funny though. The neck that the backbox sits on is tight on space. It might work if I flip the dmd monitor vertical, but I lose a lot of the screen and it would also sit back several inches.

 

I'll take another look at it tomorrow.

[benben26]

Doing a really mint job on this man, sucks about the clear coat, I almost did the same on my cabinet, however I did a small spray to test and it did exactly what yours did so I didn't actually have the problem of it destroying my work so I was lucky!