452 replies to this topic

[Conehead]

Is this a joke?  April Fool's only lasts until noon.

 

Edited by Conehead, 02 April 2021 - 02:28 AM.

[wiesshund]

Is this a joke?  April Fool's only lasts until noon.

 

 

 

I do not know

I know he was getting hammered by DDoS attacks earlier, after he had just moved the site to new hosting.

If this is true, then i do not know what may have happened
It also means that all the rom colorization projects might be lost unless they are mirrored elsewhere

[LynnInDenver]

 

Is this a joke?  April Fool's only lasts until noon.

 

 

 

I do not know

I know he was getting hammered by DDoS attacks earlier, after he had just moved the site to new hosting.

If this is true, then i do not know what may have happened
It also means that all the rom colorization projects might be lost unless they are mirrored elsewhere

 

As I recall, the ROM colorization projects are hosted over at VPUniverse, so those should be safe.

 

It's the PuP-Packs we just lost.

 

And Dazz confirmed that apparently this is real.

[njk70]

It was inevitable that the issues he cites were going to overwhelm things. Its just the beginning.  I know he is talking about the grey market cabinet builders (who are on thin to no legal ground to begin with if they include unlicensed art or tables). But the real killer will be from the advent of inexpensive commercial 3/4 scale cabinets and the modding community that will follow. If you think its bad now wait until that gets into full swing. Its unstoppable at this point. Unless the content creators give up en masse, which would be sad. Personally I would ignore it and keep the communities we've built and let the script kiddies do what they are going to do anyway. That or provide turn key content on our terms.

[cv2065]

Just reading up on how to make Pup Packs. I'm going to go for it. Thanks Terry!

[deathincclan]

So we let a few bad apples ruin it for the rest of us. I can't believe we are going to let down the 98% of good people for the 2% of bad.  Do you think this is going to stop any of the shit from going down?  No, It will not.  It is only going to hurt the good people. I am sorry you feel this way.  But don't hurt good people for a few bad.  Very disappointed.  Your call, but the wrong one in my option.  

[Wylte]

Wow. I was just getting into this hobby, downloading original tables and learning...then poof. Feels like I'm showing up to a party at sunrise :-\

[wiesshund]

I am confused, probably missing something.
Are not 3/4 scale commercial cabinets already available and have been?

 

virtual pin has cabs that are i guess 3/4 scale?

 

The other is a whole other can of worms of another label

Just reading up on how to make Pup Packs. I'm going to go for it. Thanks Terry!

wrong thread? LOL

As I recall, the ROM colorization projects are hosted over at VPUniverse, so those should be safe.

 

 

 

 

 

It's the PuP-Packs we just lost.

 

And Dazz confirmed that apparently this is real.

 

 

Oh, luckily you are right
But unluckily for PUP users, you are also right

 

It will take someone a while to get a decently working PUP repository going
 

[njk70]

I mean the commercial licensed cabinets from toyshark, arcade1up, atgames that are now available mainstream at walmart, best buy, gamestop, etc.  These will get modded to drop in a mini pc and vpx and more and more people will be looking for shortcuts to getting 100s of tables installed. I personally think this is going to eventually bring legal trouble to the hobby as the pinball vendors are now more aware of the value of their back catalog licenses. I hope I am wrong on all counts.

[Andymadness]

I hate to see that site go as it was the best place for VR MODs (that I at least knew of) and its going to take time for those wonderful items to be (hopefully) reuploaded to other sites. I totally respect the site owners right to shut it down, but I wish they could have posted a notice ahead of time kind of how monster bash pincab did a few years ago. That way the transition to whatever site would have been smoother. Anyways, if anyone knows another site beyond this one for those VR MODs please let me know. I just bought a new VR headset for VPVR.

[watacaractr]

This is truly a sad day. One of the 3 best sites for VP, gone. I don't know what to say. Every day, reading posts, messaging and checking out new content. I miss it already.  

[Nemo]

Well this is a slap in the face, no warning, no nothing, just bye ! Yeah i get it, stuff gets copied & stolen, we ALL knew that from day 1. But to close down a site just like that is not respectful to the community at all.

Its Randr's choice anyways, its only a pitty sites like his suffer from the ppl that are only in for the profit from other ppl's work. But killing it off in this manner is not the way to deal with that. Just my 2 cents.

[jaw970]

Just another victim of letting the few bad apples spoil the fun for the rest of the bunch.  Sad to say, but it happens quite a bit with not just pinball sites, but emulation sites in general.  Look at the arcade side of this -  emulation sites close down because people are selling ROMs and emulators in arcade cabinets.  The site owners see this and get upset and close their site, disappointing the many people in the community in the process.  Pinball sites are no different.  What makes things worse is when people post links to sites showing people doing this.  Sometimes, it's the users in the community, other times it's the actual people selling the ROMs and tables posting, acting like an innocent user.  Well, it's the site owner's option to close their site if they elect to.  You can't be mad or upset - things like this happen.  Site owners are human beings and can only take so much.  Perhaps after a break, cooler heads will prevail and the site will reopen.  Time will tell.

[wiesshund]

I mean the commercial licensed cabinets from toyshark, arcade1up, atgames that are now available mainstream at walmart, best buy, gamestop, etc.  These will get modded to drop in a mini pc and vpx and more and more people will be looking for shortcuts to getting 100s of tables installed. I personally think this is going to eventually bring legal trouble to the hobby as the pinball vendors are now more aware of the value of their back catalog licenses. I hope I am wrong on all counts.

 

Oh, those are already being modded, the only problems are

 construction is flimsy for a project you want to have for a long time.
You have to put a lot of effort into reinforcing the pseudo cabinet

 

 You can only go with a very small playfield monitor, 24inches, and i think you have to de-case it entirely to fit
plus do a bit of modification to hold it. Might just want to see if a 3rd party lcd controller is available for the stock screen

 

 The DMD LCD i do know if it can be saved, proprietary to their controller possibly.
I would need to see what LCD they are using to see if a 3rd party driver board is available

 

 can reuse the buttons, but the controller is going bye bye since it is an AIO system
Not sure if the plunger can be salvaged, possibly though, i mean it's a hall sensor, so i could make it work with something

 

by the time i get the stuff to make it a VPX cab, plus the 600 i spent to buy it as it is
i could have probably built one from scratch for much less.

 

I mean you can do it, but does not make any wallet logic really

 

The short cut to tables is simple
come here, or the other place, go to downloads
start clicking

 

[Badazzwi]

It's not just the pup stuff as it's all the high quality content and the wealth of information that is lost. The content creators that only uploaded there as we can only hope they choose to keep going. All the vp sites are important to a lot of us for so many reasons so when one is lost it's a huge blow to all of us who love this hobby. The ones who profit off it will shrug their shoulders and continue on.

Edited by Badazzwi, 02 April 2021 - 05:02 AM.

[Pinballman]

Very surprising and disappointing Was a great site. A disgrace that a few bad apples can get away with ruining a valuable resource  for many good people....

Edited by Pinballman, 02 April 2021 - 04:56 AM.

[Badazzwi]

It's not just a few bad apples. A quick google search will give you a good number of places selling fully loaded cabs. Here's a few.

https://creative-arcades.com/
https://www.inthenewage.com/
https://custommulticades.com/
https://www.gameroomshop.com/
https://primearcades.com/

Anyone that profits off selling someone else's work without their permission is a lowlife.

Edited by Badazzwi, 02 April 2021 - 05:07 AM.

[njk70]

I'm not saying the mass produced 3/4" cabs are a good option. I'm just saying they are going to be bringing more people into the hobby looking for the easy button. 

[Karlor]

This sucks. Was just gearing up to download some tables! Missed the last month or so of VR releases and not to mention the hundreds of regular tables I hadn't gotten to yet..

 

really sucks for all

 

Hope they come back!

[njk70]

It's not just a few bad apples. A quick google search will give you a good number of places selling fully loaded cabs. Here's a few.

https://creative-arcades.com/
https://www.inthenewage.com/
https://custommulticades.com/
https://www.gameroomshop.com/
https://primearcades.com/

Anyone that profits off selling someone else's work without their permission is a lowlife.

 

Is it just a problem that they sell it?  What if the community made a free "easy" button to getting tables and assets? Would that be ok? I believe the consensus is no and frankly it is hypocritical given the table creators are basing their work on unlicensed intellectual property of the pinball vendors (I fully support the hypocrisy so don't jump on me). There is some justification to the resellers actions as there was in the early shareware collection days.... you are paying for the integration of all the free content, and there is actually value to that (of course they are now liable for selling the unlicensed tables). It's a difficult thing to fight. If we weren't standing on hypocritical ground (to put it politely) the problem would be solved by table creators selling their tables in a marketplace and then sending cease and desist letters to the bundlers... but that is not an option.  And making a big stink about it risks too much scrutiny into this hobby (in my opinion). The hobby is growing up, maybe it could use a little self reflection.