14 replies to this topic

[tymime]

I think this is far along enough that I can post it...
What do you guys think? My goal is to have it look specifically like a game from 1969. I'm pretty happy with the layout, but I'm not 100% sure about the rules. I've never come up with rules for a pinball game before, so let me know if there's anything funny about 'em.

Edited by tymime, 07 July 2024 - 01:12 PM.

[jpsalas]

The layout looks nice to me And the theme will appeal to children of all ages I remember those cats

[mrjcrane]

I think this is far along enough that I can post it...
What do you guys think? My goal is to have it look specifically like a game from 1969. I'm pretty happy with the layout, but I'm not 100% sure about the rules. I've never come up with rules for a pinball game before, so let me know if there's anything funny about 'em.

Think an old Hanna Barbera Classic from late 60's those classic episodes are a little hard to come by. I'll dig through my cartoon archive see what surfaces.

[tymime]

 

After a long hiatus (mostly due to not being able to run VPX reliably), I've finally finished the design for this. I'm primarily a cartoonist, so all the drawings for the plastics are my own.
I hope it looks as good as it does in my head.

Edited by tymime, 09 June 2024 - 03:41 AM.

[tymime]

All visuals are in place, along with sound effects and a rudimentary scoring script. It came out rather nicely, imo. Now I just need to come up with a background image.
Figuring out the timers etc. for the JA-BA-DA bonuses is going to be a bit of pain...

 

Edit: No idea why Imgur made the picture so washed out...

Edited by tymime, 20 June 2024 - 03:21 PM.

[tymime]

Apparently scripting these bits isn't as easy as I thought it'd be... Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

Sub Bumper004_hit()
PlaySound "jet2"
AddScore 5
	If LightBumper001.State = 0 Then
	LightBumper001.State = 1
	End If
	If LightBumper001.State = 0 Then
	LightBumper001.State = 1
	End If
End Sub

Sub Target001_hit()
PlaySound "Bell10"
AddScore 10
	If Post.IsDropped=True Then
	Post.IsDropped=False
	LightPost.State = 1
	End If
	If Post.IsDropped=False Then
	Post.IsDropped=True
	LightPost.State = 0
	End If
End Sub

Also, I'm honestly not at all sure how to do the bonus targets/lights...

[kiwi]

In the first case it seems like you want to make the bumper flash, you can use the ".Duration" function.

 

1(on) is the initial state of the light and 0(off) the final state, 200 milliseconds is the time that passes from the initial state to the final state,

light on and off after 200 milliseconds.

Sub Bumper004_hit()
PlaySound "jet2"
AddScore 5
	LightBumper001.Duration 1, 200, 0
End Sub

 

[tymime]

I just want the bumper light to turn on if it's off, and turn off if it's on.

[kiwi]

This reverses the state of the light.

Sub Bumper004_hit()
PlaySound "jet2"
AddScore 5
	LightBumper001.State = ABS (LightBumper001.State - 1)
End Sub

Edit: and this?

Sub Target001_hit()
PlaySound "Bell10"
AddScore 10
	Post.IsDropped = ABS (Post.IsDropped + 1)
	LightPost.State =  ABS (Post.IsDropped + 1)

End Sub

 

Edited by kiwi, 08 July 2024 - 07:12 AM.

[tymime]

Thanks, that did the trick (though I did have to tweak the LightPost line a bit).

I think this table is in a more-or-less playable state now, so I've uploaded what you might call an alpha release:

https://archive.org/... Cats alpha.vpx

 

Let me know what you guys think so far. I'm not going for 100% authenticity (especially since I've never had the chance to play any real-life pinballs from 1969 myself), but I am hoping it feels mostly like the real thing.

 

To-do list:

JA-BA-DA bonuses

Move ball-saver script so it's activated by upper left trigger

Extra ball rewards

Get "ball in play" and credit reels working

 

I guess the main hurdle is getting the script from the sample table I used as a starting point to talk to the features I've added.

[tymime]

Just added JP's latest physics and flipper script (the link above should still work). As a result, it's a tad more difficult, and I'm considering lowering how many points you need to get an extra ball...
 
Also, I realize I ought to share what it looks like with the backdrop:

[tymime]

To-do list:

JA-BA-DA bonuses

Move ball-saver script so it's activated by upper left trigger

Extra ball rewards

Get "ball in play" and credit reels working

I still have no idea how to do any of these... I've tried copying and pasting bits of my script from Jungle Quest, but they just don't seem to be compatible with the sample table I'm modifying. I'm an artist, not a coder, so I can't really make much sense out of what I'm looking at.

Any help is extremely appreciated.

[tymime]

New alpha release with working credit and "ball in play" reels thanks to bluenmaize. I've also darkened the overall lighting a tad so that the lights stand out more, plus I've replaced the large graphics with WebP versions to reduce the file size.

https://archive.org/...Cats alpha2.vpx

Edited by tymime, 11 March 2025 - 04:08 AM.

[tymime]

With the help of an extremely helpful "skills" plugin for Claude AI, I have finally managed to get the script to match the rules I created. I still want to add one of those high score sticky note things, and maybe add 2-4 players if there's any demand for it. But other than that I can now confidently say that this is playable.
https://archive.org/...a Cats beta.vpx

 

Let me know if there are any issues. (I do know that it doesn't work in 10.8.1 for unknown reasons, but it plays just fine in 10.8.0, so I guess I'm sticking with that for now.)

[tymime]

High score post-it note and a spinner I forgot about added:

https://archive.org/... Cats beta2.vpx

 

There's some visual bugs with the post-it that I'm puzzled about, not sure what the fix is. Also, the bonus lights can get a little funny if you hit a JA-BA-DA target immediately after activating the "collect bonus" trigger, but that doesn't seem to affect how it functions as far as I can tell. (And of course it still doesn't run in 10.8.1.) Other than that, I think I can say this is more or less finished.