12 replies to this topic

[mrjcrane]

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: Great table btw + PupPack !! I need help with the ROM. I don't want to clobber the ROM for Simpsons Pinball Party, want to be able to run both games at will. I do have the new muted rom in place and the Treehouse is executing without error. So, my question is ... can I just rename the new ROM to simpprty_treehouse.zip then make the same ROM reference in the table script, so that both tables can be independent? Somebody mentions something about making a "shortcut" to the ROM, but I don't know how to do that trick just yet. Any help will be appreciated. mrjc.

 

 

[wiesshund]

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: Great table btw + PupPack !! I need help with the ROM. I don't want to clobber the ROM for Simpsons Pinball Party, want to be able to run both games at will. I do have the new muted rom in place and the Treehouse is executing without error. So, my question is ... can I just rename the new ROM to simpprty_treehouse.zip then make the same ROM reference in the table script, so that both tables can be independent? Somebody mentions something about making a "shortcut" to the ROM, but I don't know how to do that trick just yet. Any help will be appreciated. mrjc.

 

 

 

No, i do not think so, what are you trying to do?
Run the ROM with sound muted?

If you create a VPMAlias.txt file in the VPinMAME folder, it will alias an input rom name to the specified (real) rom. Format example:

simtrehor,real_name_of_simpsons_rom

 

then they will have separate NVRAM
so you can mute the ROM audio or what not

I do not think pinMAME will accept a ROM with a arbitrarily made up name?

 

If you are just trying to mute the ROM audio though
you can just use 

 

.Games(cGameName).Settings.Value("sound")=0

 

in the table init of treehouse horror, and use 

 

.Games(cGameName).Settings.Value("sound")=1

 

in pinball party
 

[mrjcrane]

Wiess, big help thanks. Esentially the Pup Pack that accompanies the Treehouse table comes with 3 components.

1) A replacement rom for simpprty that mutes a lot of the original music and phrases that are normally functional in the normal Pinball Party table.

2) Comes with a bunch of video clips for the PUP video folder that present in the backglass screen that kind of replaces most of the normal audio that comes out of the table

3) Replacement music which also gets loaded to the pup video folder.

This is a really fun table mod. If you haven't tried it, it is worth the effort. What you told me about VPMAlias.txt file was the piece I was missing. Thanks a lot !!! 

 

https://vpinball.com...ouse-of-horror/

 

Appears I alreay had a VPMAlias.txt file already. I never knew and it had 4 entries in it.

 

ratfink,startreb

missworld,kissc

penthouse,hglbtrtb

blkou_hf,blkou_l1

Edited by mrjcrane, 05 November 2020 - 10:47 PM.

[wiesshund]

Hmm, well in that particular case, i am not sure what the absolute correct answer is

i am not sure if you just rename simpprty.zip that contains  simpprty.bin (or what ever the bin name is)
to simpprty2.zip and leave the bin name alone, and just have the table script do cgamename simpprty2?

 

it may work as the bin inside will be valid.
It will share the same nvram as simpprty, but that may be a non issue in this case

 

If it muted all the ROM sound, i would simply say make an alias
use the stock sim ROM, launch tree table, and mute the ROM sound, which will save to the alias nvram and leave party nvram alone

 

but your case is different, it is an actual custom edited ROM it sounds like?

 

Hopefully someone has a better answer

 

[mrjcrane]

Great ideas !! I will try a combination of them, thanks again ! I have an idea. If I rename the .BIN with a custom name then recompress the ROM to romname.zip & identify the same romname in my table script, it just may be enough to trick the table. 

 

With the special MutedROM.zip included in the PupPack, it does allow for some of the basic table sounds to come through, just think it was scaled back to omit all the music and all or most of the spoken phrases. Like you ideas going to give it a shot. 

Edited by mrjcrane, 06 November 2020 - 01:05 AM.

[wiesshund]

I think pinmame will spit out an error that it does not recognize random named bin as anything valid to start.

But you may get it to work with the basically same bin in 2 different zips, Maybe.

 

not sure if the alias will help there or not

 

Shame you cant do cgamename = ./altrom/simpprty
and just have pin mame look at an alt rom folder

Edited by wiesshund, 06 November 2020 - 02:07 AM.

[mrjcrane]

That's a good idea, similar to how VPM can look at the altcolor folder for colorized DMD's an "altrom" folder is a Great Idea.  I have no idea if that is even possible but seems like that could be a good next evolution !! So on custom games like JP's Slimer and Minions, neither require a corresponding "ROM" entry in the Windows registry because the games are self contained. If I can figure out how to decouple the ROM on Simpsons Treehouse and make it think it is an independent table with no corresponding ROM, that could work. I'll think on this for a few days. I have a few ideas on how to do this.

[wiesshund]

That's a good idea, similar to how VPM can look at the altcolor folder for colorized DMD's an "altrom" folder is a Great Idea.  I have no idea if that is even possible but seems like that could be a good next evolution !! So on custom games like JP's Slimer and Minions, neither require a corresponding "ROM" entry in the Windows registry because the games are self contained. If I can figure out how to decouple the ROM on Simpsons Treehouse and make it think it is an independent table with no corresponding ROM, that could work. I'll think on this for a few days. I have a few ideas on how to do this.

 

an alt rom function would be very doable
pinmame is after all MAME in it's basic functionality, and you can tell mame to run ./ROMS/galaga or ./altset/Galaga
And pinmame seems to be able to do it from the command line, so seems it should be just a small change to VPX to have the option to pass along a path to ROM?

As far as making treehouse ROMless.
Simple

You just have to script everything the rom would otherwise be doing.
LOL
And then comes the hard part.
Actually figuring out all the ROMs rules and functions etc, and then turning that into functional script.

 

What might be easier though, is if the remaining sounds have easily identifiable triggers that could be easily mimicked in the script
just sample the needed sounds, have the script play them, and for that table have the table init simply set the rom sound to 0
and then just share the standard simpparty ROM.
Of course i have no idea if it would be easy in that ROM to pin down specific triggers for the needed sound events, but it could be doable

[mrjcrane]

Wies, I'm coming back to this now that Halloween is on the horizon. What I am trying to do is to avoid having to flip flop the rom between the normal game and the HOH version of the game.  I'm almost pulling it off with the exception of the rom flopping.

1) Created a rom pointer in the table script for "simpprty_treehouse". This allows me to work with the VPMalias.txt file

Const cGameName="simpprty_treehouse",UseSolenoids=1,UseLamps=0,UseGI=0,UseSync=1,HandleMech=1, SCoin="coin"

2) Put the alias in VPMalias.txt

simpprty,simpprty_treehouse

3) What this allows me to do is have pup specific folder for the "Treehouse" version of the game

C:\PinUPSystem\PUPVideos\simpprty_treehouse

So when I revert back to the normal "simpprty" rom/version of the game it deactivates the treehouse pup pack automatically.

 

So my last hurdle here is the muted rom swap. I am trying to allow both games to be active and functional with out having to swap in the muted "simpprty" rom with the non-muted version of the "simpprty" rom.

 

If the muted rom is entirely muting all phrases and music then I may be able to get away with doing a fake out trick and point the table audio to altsound = 1. I'll check with the SimpHOH developer to inqure if the Muted Rom is 100% muted or partially muted. If it is 100% muted, then your trick below should be my last step.

 

Wies Suggest (mute table rom audio):

.Games(cGameName).Settings.Value("sound")=1

 

My current active game script line.

Const cGameName="simpprty_treehouse",UseSolenoids=1,UseLamps=0,UseGI=0,UseSync=1,HandleMech=1, SCoin="coin"

[Outhere]

This is what i use - https://www.nailbust...stom_parameters

[tvguy]

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: Great table btw + PupPack !! I need help with the ROM. I don't want to clobber the ROM for Simpsons Pinball Party, want to be able to run both games at will. I do have the new muted rom in place and the Treehouse is executing without error. So, my question is ... can I just rename the new ROM to simpprty_treehouse.zip then make the same ROM reference in the table script, so that both tables can be independent? Somebody mentions something about making a "shortcut" to the ROM, but I don't know how to do that trick just yet. Any help will be appreciated. mrjc.

 

 

 

hey there, the muted rom doesn't seem to be included in any of the tables / pup packs i've downloaded for this title. Any chance you could make the download of the rom available? I can't seem to get the pup pack running by renaming simpprty to simpprtyh. Frustrating.

[mrjcrane]

 

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror: Great table btw + PupPack !! I need help with the ROM. I don't want to clobber the ROM for Simpsons Pinball Party, want to be able to run both games at will. I do have the new muted rom in place and the Treehouse is executing without error. So, my question is ... can I just rename the new ROM to simpprty_treehouse.zip then make the same ROM reference in the table script, so that both tables can be independent? Somebody mentions something about making a "shortcut" to the ROM, but I don't know how to do that trick just yet. Any help will be appreciated. mrjc.

 

 

 

hey there, the muted rom doesn't seem to be included in any of the tables / pup packs i've downloaded for this title. Any chance you could make the download of the rom available? I can't seem to get the pup pack running by renaming simpprty to simpprtyh. Frustrating.

 

Hey tvGuy sorry just seeing your message. I don't have authority to upload to the this forum. Seems the muted rom was bundled with the table when I grabbed it in 2020. Let me dig through my archive and search a few other sites. Will get back to you.

[40yearoldPinhead]

This is what i use - https://www.nailbust...stom_parameters

 

This is the solution in case you missed it.