Its awesome to see someone tackle this table. Its my favorite pinball game. When i first started i also made recreating this table my project, learned tons, but ended up putting it in the back burner for another table.
The way i did the mini games was use the middle of the playfield since its so open. I made all elements not collidable and invisible. once the event was triggered i had a series of images using a flasher thats as big as the table work like a transition, just to make the objects appear more smoothly rather than just popping out of nowhere. i cant find the most recent version of this table i worked on, but i found an early version to get a few pictures to show you want i mean.
Side note, id be happy to work with you to make this project happen, but would understand if you want to take this table as a learning the ropes of VP.
https://imgur.com/a/YRbmtjr
yeah I thought of something like that but I figured it was going to be a mess, And the way I'm doing it now looks and feels very close to the original.
How were you planning to do the pokemon catching thing? And the egg mode? were you planning to use 3d models and animate them and such? How far did you get with the project?
I created the Egg Event, Catch Mechanic, one mini-game, bumper animations (including circular movement and going under the playfield), Pikachu outlane ball save, and the slot mechanic with the tiny display.
For the table, I used 3D Pokémon models extracted from Pokémon Duel's game assets. The gameplay closely follows the original video game—when a coin is inserted and the game starts, the slot mechanic for the location selection starts. Once the plunger is pulled and released, the slot stops, and the chosen location dictates which Pokémon can appear. For example, landing on the lava location means only Fire-type Pokémon can appear.
To make encounters more dynamic, Pokémon appear at random locations around the playfield instead of fixed spots. I changed this because having them appear in the same place became repetitive after about ten catches.
I developed two versions of the catch mechanic. The first was a direct recreation of the video game: spelling "CATCH," hitting Sharpedo, activating bumpers to make Pokémon appear. The second was hitting Sharpedo three times, then lighting all three bumpers which led to a "Who's That Pokémon?" silhouette challenge on the
DMD, where players guessed the Pokémon from four options to earn bonuses. However, I scrapped this method as it became boring after a while.
The current catch mechanic functions like the video game but with added interaction. Instead of simply hitting the Pokémon, they "fight back." This is achieved using kickers placed at every possible spawn location, making it appear as if the Pokémon catches the ball and shoots it back at the player with each time they shoot the ball a bit stronger.
I didn't implement the evolution mechanic due to the time-consuming nature of creating so many images, so I put it on hold.
For the Egg Mode, I used a series of small, invisible walls to define the 3D model’s path. The model moves from wall to wall, with each wall becoming collidable only when the model reaches it. A timer smooths the transition, making it look like the Pokémon is walking.
I haven't animated the 3D models yet, as that was planned for later on in development. However, I did animate the Spheal mini-game. I used a flasher that changes images every half second or so to simulate water movement. The Spheal models rise from the water, follow a similar path to the game, react when hit, and then submerge before resurfacing. The ramps work, and the larger Spheal hit the ball three times before launching it into the basket. I think the mini game is pretty faithful to the video game, aside from having the spheal climb up the ramp and being able to hit them and score with them as well. That would take so much time I rather not suffer throught that, so i didnt include it.
I included other stuff That i barely recall, like if you catch 1 pokemon from every location you trigger multi catch mode, where 4 pokemon appear for a short time, and you need to catch them all. another is for every ten pokemon you catch or so you get the chance throught the slot mechanic to make a legendary/mhytical pokemon appear with its own path around the table.
Edited by Bedoga, 31 March 2025 - 04:34 PM.
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