114 replies to this topic

[schplurg]

Update: July 15, 2025

 

Hockey Pinball is FINALLY available, version 1.0

 

https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

 

There is a README file included and a "wheel art" graphic for the menu. I think that is needed? Been a long time since I've messed with VP.

 

All the screenshots in this post are very old and obsolete.

 

I announced the game release today on page 6 of this thread.

https://www.vpforums...=36925&p=546944

 

I'd love to hear any comments.

 

Hope you enjoy this!!! I think it's a lot of fun!!!

 

- Mike

 

 

 

 

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Original post (2017 yikes!):

screenshots, videos and description are old and obsolete

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Hello! I don't know what to call this!

 

I started using VP maybe a month ago and after tinkering a bit, decided to make my own table.

 

This is a cross between pinball and bubble hockey - or something like that?

 

I have absolutely no clue if anyone is interested in this, I just started building it because it's "what I do" (game developer), and figured I may as well share it.

 

The video below this image has updated graphics.

 

 

Me playing a full game (video is a little choppy, it isn't your computer):

 

 

This is unfinished so some graphics etc are weird, like the arrows at the top and the darkened "fight!" button. Also the ring of lights at center ice serve no purpose anymore. The blue things next to the flippers - this table was actually a tutorial table (and I will credit its author) and those are the last parts remaining from it. I just stretched them but they need replacing.

 

Features:

 

- Object of the game is to shoot the puck (the ball looks like a puck) into the top goal and not lose it down the drain (your goal).

 

- The defense (CPU) consists of drop targets, and their locations change depending on how the game is going. For instance, if you are serving a penalty then there will be more players in front of your own net trying to bounce the puck into your goal.

 

-A "big Shooter", when activated (the kicker on the lower right) can blast a hard shot either at your goal, or ricochet it off a defender for a "one-timer". You never know which one it will attempt, but be quick cuz the shot is hard!

 

-Nudging is part of the game and is encouraged - however:

Each "nudge" adds to your Penalty Meter. If your meter gets full you get a penalty.

 

-You can also move the Penalty Meter the other way by doing certain tasks. If the CPU gets a penalty (in hockey you are on the Power Play now) they will have much less defense for 30 seconds, giving you an easier chance to score.

 

-To score, you must first knock at least one goalie drop-target blocking the net so that the puck can get through. If you knock down all 3 targets, the net will remain without a goalie for 10 seconds before they all pop back up.

 

- Aside from the normal "hockey score" you can also get a "normal" pinball score. Winning the game is half the challenge. Gain points for hitting defensemen, getting goals, whatever else. This part is kind of experimental.

 

- Hockey sounds - the crowd cheers boos, and quiets down according to gameplay. You can hear defensemen grunting as they get hit hard, sirens and foghorns when goals are scored, and soon an announcer. Crowd chants are there, organ playing, the ping of a puck going off the goal post.

 

The table is not finished - the 3 red targets on the left do nothing right now, they are just there.

 

I want this to be more of a hockey game, so I am deliberately leaving the playfield wide open. This kind of sucks though because I could use some more targets and things to keep things interesting.

 

Last night I moved the screen (DMD I guess) to the bottom. I don't know how to do a proper DMD and don't really want to. Maybe later, but for now this is "desktop only". And I've only been using VP a few weeks so just making this up as I go.

 

The scoreboard is a new addition. Everything is haha. Oh and the playfield is full width, meaning that the bleacher seats and the metal railing around the table are outside of any possible play area.

 

In other words, the width of the playing surface spans the entire inside cabinet of a pinball machine, including the plunger lane area, even though it may not appear that way. No wasted space.

 

This is not a typical build, I know, so no offense to any pinball purists I just like to try different things. I should be able to finish it in a week or so from now.

 

I'll put up a gameplay video soon. Let me know what you think, I can take it

Edited by schplurg, 15 July 2025 - 08:01 AM.

[randr]

I would say frikkin awesome! Love bubble hockey and love pinball so win win! Looks great!

[schplurg]

I would say frikkin awesome! Love bubble hockey and love pinball so win win! Looks great!

 

I would say frikkin awesome! Love bubble hockey and love pinball so win win! Looks great!

The quote button seems to work only sometimes...what the, now two suddenly appear above as I

 

I would say frikkin awesome! Love bubble hockey and love pinball so win win! Looks great!

'm typing...uh 3 now what the...?

 

Anyways, thank you for the encouragement! I just added a video to the first post.

[schplurg]

Having a hard time getting the forum software to cooperate... thank you for the encouragement!

 

I added a video to the first post. It's more up to date than the screenshot - ads on the boards and logos on the ice surface.

 

ETA:

This is weird, that post above wasn't showing when I typed this one. Didn't think it went through. Sorry for the double post.

Edited by schplurg, 27 January 2017 - 08:52 AM.

[xenonph]

I agree with randr. AWESOME!!!

Seeing the other hockey players on side line reminded me of that Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial of the Football team Kentucky Buckets. They had fake people props in the football stands.

Do any of those extra players Targets on sideline drop when a player enters the ice ring?

I really like this concept  and it looks fantastic!!

Can't wait to try it!!

Carry on Sir.

[Mark70]

Great!

Same here, I like ice hockey and played it a lot on pc or console back in the day and of course I like pinball.  So, way to go

I also remember playing bubble hockey......I'm getting old.

Edited by Mark70, 27 January 2017 - 12:06 PM.

[STAT]

Really cool, and awesome with the Puck.

It would be very cool if you make it like this: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=120

Edited by STAT, 27 January 2017 - 11:43 AM.

[xenonph]

That would be cool STAT but you would have to build a special cabinet with flippers on both ends to play against anyone.

[Mark70]

Or head to head over internet connection. That would be fun

[MrKnister]

GREAT Idea   

 

since im a big icehokey fan, the merger of the two is an absolute winner for me 

i hope i find some time to try this table this weekend. the video was hilarious!!  just

saw it at work and read your comments in the vid .. haha love your attitude ....

 

also ... the game design and the rules look also GREAT !! ("tilt-penalty" and stuff)

 

gimme more of this funky stuff 

Edited by MrKnister, 27 January 2017 - 12:10 PM.

[lodger]

very clever- nice! The only thing I can think of for a 2.0 build or anything like that would be having slingshots that shoot back down toward the player drain and maybe having a way for the ball to go back around the players net. The one parallell between pinball and hockey is the idea of making passes to set up shots, so having a few lanes that would funnel to the flippers could be a neat way to integrate that. Nice work man- great to see another original developer!!!

[STAT]

That would be cool STAT but you would have to build a special cabinet with flippers on both ends to play against anyone.

Maybe for the begining, it would be enough, if you have a Computer Opponent (Flippers with Triggers)

Edited by STAT, 27 January 2017 - 01:07 PM.

[chokeee]

Great idea! Full screen will be grat! Why no VPX version? I guess that VPX physics is not good for it?

Edited by chokeee, 27 January 2017 - 02:10 PM.

[schplurg]

Hey! Thanks for all the responses! I was surprised to see so many today!

I want to address the questions and comments - I had problems with the quote function yesterday so I will just answer them best I can. I appreciate all of the responses.

@xenonph
Actually the players on the sidelines were supposed to be fans (audience). I thought it would be funny to have flippers on the other side rooting for the other team too. Maybe the flippers flip and the drop targets drop up and down when theyre excited haha. But I dunno. Thanks for the comments! (That goes for everyone)

@Enthusiast
EAs NHL series was one of my all time favorite games, along with Links Golf.

@Pinball and Arcade Freak
I did think of a head to head briefly, but I didn't see how it would work in case I do a cabinet build. I actually don't know what I'd need to do to make it for a cab as it is. I'm still a newbie.

@Hobbyist
Thank you very much! Can I upload a beta version here? If not I could put it on my own website.

Oh crap I just realized I've not been quoting your names, I thought some seemed a little long!

@lodger
I made the defensemen pretty bouncy so they will kick the ball back. I'd like to have more pinball stuff in there - I just opted for an open playfield. I'm actually just making this up as I go along, so who knows. Maybe another kicker. In fact, I thought about having each defensemen with an invisible instant-kicker in front of them, but...nah.

The one little lane at the top kinda helps the right top flipper get good shots. Not sure what more I will add yet. It's experimental but I like it there. I'd like some more targets or other ways to get a Power Play.

It's cool passing the puck up from the bottom, shooting it with a second flipper across the slot (front of the net) to the other side and nailing a one timer all with just paddles. It feels like hockey sometimes - cool!

I thought about having a tilted area behind the player net so the ball could go back there and not get stuck. But getting it to come out fast or just trickle out...I thought it might slow the gameplay a bit. I could try it though, maybe I will. Could use kickers to pop it back out maybe.

@STAT
I thought about having CPU controlled flippers, but I'm not that ambitious. I just spent a few years designing my newest game and I need something a bit lighter now but it's an awesome idea. Could still happen.

@chokeee
About VPX - I think when I first fired up VPX and hit "New Table", as soon as I shot the ball out it would immediately hug the right side of the playfield as if it were tilted - massively - to the right as well as down. I never found a solution to that.

SO I downloaded a table template, it worked fine, but VP9. I don't know I just kind of started that way. I tried some tables in VPX and my PC is a little slow for it. I'm not using my main PC for this.

Would it be difficult to convert? The code is really simple. I'm not sure about the physics, I guess it would be fine? I don't know much about it honestly. I just dove in

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I am thinking about having defensemen get knocked down if you hit them enough.

Things I want to be able to do:

Detect ball speed. I think I could do it by having a "primitive" follow the ball and recording the position of that primitive over time. I don't think there is a ball speed variable built-in, or a way to determine it's location.

I'd like to be able to detect impact strength. This could be done with ball speed well enough.

I want to do this so that the sound effects and announcer can be different for different types of shots - hard and weak. Not a big deal though.

I definitely need a few other things for the player to do. It's too hard getting a Power Play, and I'd like the player to be able to get into a fight. Winner gets the Power Play, loser goes to the penalty box. Remember "Blades Of Steel" where that was the case? Loser gets the penalty? Haha AWE-some rule!

"Technical"
By the way, most of the sound effects came from Sounddogs.com. The board ads are from another game I made. I used flashers for those. I used Flashers for the netting too, ramps for the glass (very very narrow and tall ramps!), and walls and ramps for the goals and grandstands. Oh and a ramp object or two for the DMD screen thingy.

I encourage anyone who has never played with the editor to give it a shot. Very cool!

Thanks again for all the feedback! Totally cool and makes me want to finish this fast!

Again, I'd like to upload a version for testing. Should I do it here or on my server?

Cheers!

I was going to add a player bench area along one side as a lane to shoot the ball into, but the ball won't go any farther to the side. I removed all the walls but there's an invisible barrier it seems, and I don't want the table narrower. Maybe there is a way around that?

 

I have a ton of ideas, some are just too much work, at least for now. I'm already building two MAME cabinets and a custom front end for that. I have too much fun.

Edited by schplurg, 27 January 2017 - 08:59 PM.

[Juwellez]

This is truly cool and looks difficult    

[schplurg]

Thank you! I win some games and I lose some. It will be cool to have other people try it.

 

I figured out how to widen the playfield, so I added player benches for both teams on one side. I suppose the doors to each bench will open for whatever reason.

 

Maybe if you get into the opposing player bench you can start a fight - makes sense. Or other goodness.

 

Hitting your own player bench may add up Power Play points...and/or some multiball? Like a Super Power Play. Multiball isn't really an advantage in this game, but I thought I could have the extra balls not count toward goals against the player while it's happening.

 

Multipuck! Sure why not? Gotta have multipuck!

 

Also, the puck will be shot out of the bench areas in a way that will set them up for a good shot (or bad if it applies), as someone suggested earlier with ramps or lanes.

 

MUUUUUULTI-puuuuuuuck!!!!!! Maybe multipuck can be the fight? Nice and hectic - hmmm....a bench clearing brawl with 5 pucks coming onto the ice?

Edited by schplurg, 28 January 2017 - 08:59 AM.

[STAT]

Heres an example, how it could work: http://www.vpforums....cer#entry367730

Edited by STAT, 28 January 2017 - 09:28 AM.

[schplurg]

I thought about CPU flippers - maybe I'll play around with one. It would be totally random - I mean trigger operated but no AI.

 

I now have player benches on one side AND penalty boxes on the other, all with "drop-doors" The officials booth even has a desk and chair haha. Not sure how to incorporate these areas yet - so many ideas!

 

It's awesome being able to design a table (basically a game level) without having to design the entire game too!

 

By the way, my iOS game is called "Daredevil Dave: Motorcycle Mayhem!" The first one made lots of money, this one, not so much It's been out a year so I'm not trying to push sales...too late for that.

 

I started making a table based on that motorcycle game first. You jumped the ball up a ramp and over buses, visit a hospital if you crash, and other stuff. I even made a hospital model. But then I started hockey because I doubted I'd complete an entire real table.

 

I'll work on hockey today and get some new pics up!

[jbg4208]

This is good stuff! Keep it up!

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[schplurg]

Cool thanks! I haven't been able to touch it for a few days but I'll get 'er done.