Pinball 99

[Asmusr]

Here's the first beta version of Pinball 99. I have eliminated lots of glitches, but there are probably many left.

 

 

To play you can use either keyboard: space, Z, M; or joystick 1: fire, left, right (depending on whether you press space of fire first). Keyboard is recommended since you can activate both flippers at the same time. During the game you can also use the flipper controls to roll the highlighted TI99 letters in the top bonus area left/right. A bonus multiplier will multiply all further points you get, so it's very important in order to get a high score.

 

I don't have access to hardware at the moment, so I'm interested in knowing how it works on the real deal. I think you have to rename the image file to 8 characters to use it on a FinalGROM 99. On the F18A machines I'm setting the maximum number of sprites on a line to 4 in order to hide sprites entering the top panel, and you currently have to power cycle your machine to restore it to your default setting.

 

I'm interested in knowing if the game is too hard. At the moment the only way to get an extra ball is hitting the application 'ramp' 3 times, which I have never done myself (but my son did it ?). Is it possible to play longer games after training? Post your high scores here.

 

pinball99-8.bin

Edited June 11, 2022 by Asmusr

[Nick99]

Playing on my F18A equipped TI, it works smooth, totally wonderful!! 

Amazing what you've done @Asmusr!

I can play this over and over again.

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  Top game!

[tmop69]

Great, high quality game! ? I'm not a great pinball's games expert, however I was able to score more than 17K in the first run, using the joystick. It doesn't seem excessively hard, but really well calibrated and with a great longevity/playability. Is there a "tilt" button? Will you add additional tables?  

[Asmusr]

If the ball gets stuck you can press space/fire for a slight tilt. 

[Asmusr]

1 hour ago, tmop69 said:

Will you add additional tables?

I don't think so. Although the engine is quite generic and adding another table wouldn't require much programming, I don't think you would get a lot of variation from adding another table with more or less the same features. I'm also looking forward to working on something else...

[tmop69]

50 minutes ago, Asmusr said:

If the ball gets stuck you can press space/fire for a slight tilt. 

ok, I'll try it. ?  For now, my best score is 24K point. It's really playable! Great job! 

[ti99iuc]

It's amazing how, Rasmus, you always manage to amaze me!
Each time you manage to exceed my imagined expectations of what the end result could have been.

I also really like the opening music you chose and the quality of the speech is something crazy.

I have tried it a bit on my TI99 and maybe the speech result a bit low as volume compared to the music but I am not sure if it is a my problem only on the real machine.
 

During the gameplay:
-  it happened that the ball went through the right flip(it happened when it was going very fast)
- at a certain point the ball blocked in the left side (where is not present the stop sign) and pressing space bar I was able to do something but the ball passed thru the block internally and not externally. It did not bounce outward but reentered with each press of the space bar.

 

As extras, I just write some my thoughts if you will decide to complete the game and if you like what I noted:

as detail maybe missing a stop in the left position too... these are being passed only in one direction and act as a stop sign in the forbidden direction (if I remember correctly).

 

By the way I wanted to ask a pair of things too if possible: 

- would be possible to remove the transparency from the ball?

- could a simulated rotation of the blades be added when the ball passes in the right direction?

or maybe add one more that simulate the rotation of the blades when ball passes in both direction?

 

- could be added the possibility to up both the flippers using the up of the joystick?

I did not exceed 10 thousand points, for the most of the times I lost the ball that going in the aside ways To be honest, anyway, I am always been unlucky with the pinball games but it was also happening with the real ones ? 

As Always, many thanks for your effort and the nice games you are coding ❤️ 

Edited May 26, 2022 by ti99iuc

[+save2600]

Real iron, internal 32k RAM and no F18A. Didn't have to rename the file. Downloaded, threw it on my SD card and came up perfectly as Pinball 99 in the menu.
 

Played a few games so far, and scored 38990 as the highest.

 

I know this is a relatively early work in progress which is GREAT and fun so far! Some thoughts/opinions/feedback:

 

Contrary to the instructions above, there's independent flipper control using the joystick on my real TI-99/4A machine. Option to press 'up' on the joystick to flip both flippers simultaneously would be nice. Down on the joystick to pull back the plunger and the fire button to start a game and nudge the playfield. Bonus if when holding down the fire button and you press left/right/up - nudges appropriately. 

 

Probably haven't instituted them yet, but the switches (depending, but typically worth 10/100 points) in the return and outlanes don't score. Neither does the 10 point switch to the right by the SAMS lane. Might be nice to add a 10pt switch on the opposite side of the playfield too, where you have that flat vertical spot under the F18A targets.

 

Ball action down by the flippers a little too bouncy. And the gap where the flippers meet the return lane causes adverse ball action at times. Ball action should be a little more dead and relatively smooth so it doesn't take a funny hop in those spots. 

 

Flipper action at the end of the flippers project the ball almost straight horizontally instead of a slight upward angle. 

 

Maybe instead of a permanent 'play more' post in the middle of the flippers, that could be a bonus feature that pops up after completing a certain objective? Like spelling SAMS or something.

 

Slingshots are a little too sensitive and strong, especially near the top. In a real pinball machine, the actual plunger/slingshot itself is in the middle... so the action above and below that point should have less of a kick IMO. Stuff like this are the little things I look for when playing video pinball. The more accurate the gameplay, the more better. More better.  ? 

 

Speaking of the slingshots... do the flashing stars mean anything or just aesthetic for now? In some pinball machines, you'll score a little higher when lit (usually not flashing/alterating rhythmically like you have it now though), but for every 10 point playfield switch you hit, could have the stars alternate. Ex. 10 points normally, or 100 points when lit. 

 

If a spinner were to go anywhere, I'd put it at the entrance of the captive ball ramp. Or change the SAMS rollover mechanic altogether and put a spinner there.  ?

 

Graphic depicting a one-way ball gate in the upper left by the TI99 bonus multiplier switches would be a good idea. That way it doesn't seem like the ball is hitting an invisible barrier. 

 

Like the playfield design (super smooth scrolling too) and like that you instituted the all-important lane change feature for the TI99 lanes! 

 

3 or 5 ball option would be nice. Alternating 2+ player option too if possible. 

 

Agree about the speech being a little low in volume. Love the speech, sound effects, in-game and game over music! 

 

And if you were ever to implement multi-ball... could hit the captive ball ramp three times to spell RXB, where another ball would pop out for some extra combative action!  ?

[Reciprocating Bill]

Works great on real iron (*no F18a, 16-bit RAM). Astounding!  

[PeteE]

Same here, scrolling is smooth as butter on a 9918A.  I was able to get the app ramp 3 times, with final score of 65070.

[+mizapf]

RPK for MAME

pinball99-8.rpk

[Retrospect]

This is great!  Thank you Rasmus

[Serafini Lapo]

Rasmus.. i miei più sentiti complimenti! Ho scritto elogi anche su youtube, ma non sono mai abbastanza?

Vedere nascere e crescere un gioco del genere, mi riempie di orgoglio! poter assistere nella mia "carriera di "videogiocatore" ad un gioco di simile caratura è un onore!

Grazie!

[+mizapf]

I wonder if there is a simple way to convert paged378 ROMs for use in the Geneve. Maybe one could replace the bank selection by an XOP call (to another ID, like 1) and implement the page handling there.

[+9640News]

35 minutes ago, mizapf said:

I wonder if there is a simple way to convert paged378 ROMs for use in the Geneve. Maybe one could replace the bank selection by an XOP call (to another ID, like 1) and implement the page handling there.

I just happened to see this.  I haven't been following enough of this thread to understand what the target/goal is?  Might be better to take this to the Geneve Development topic.

[+mizapf]

Goal: Play Rasmus' pinball (and other games) on my real Geneve.

[Asmusr]

1 hour ago, mizapf said:

Goal: Play Rasmus' pinball (and other games) on my real Geneve.

I guess you would also need to change the user input routine, because I'm not using KSCAN.

[+9640News]

I went back through the thread and I think I understand your concept.

 

First, the program will work with a stock TI-99/4A with a 9918.

 

Second, the memory paging code would need to be revised to page in Geneve memory versus FinalGrom memory.

 

Simplest route is likely use a modified version of EXEC passing the command line argument for the bin file that gets loaded into memory.  All of the Geneve's memory is available as RAM in TIMODE.  This particular bin is a 256K bin, so not small by any means, but even the stock Geneve should be able to handle it.

 

The key here is where in memory (range) is the program running from, and where is the data being paged into memory.  The mapper registers for the Geneve in TIMODE are at >8000 to >8007 for each 8K block from >0000 to >FFFF.  It will just be a different mapping scheme.  Simplest would be to add a secondary mapping routine to the code and then either PINBALL can determine it is being run on a Geneve, or the EXEC command line option re-maps a predefined address to use the Geneve memory mapping code. The Geneve mapping code would need to be populated with the 32 X 8K page numbers the modified EXEC program passed and passed to a buffer in the program.

 

Doable, yes.  Whether Rasmus would invest the effort, another story.  If the FinalGrom version uses a single routine for mapping memory, it is easier.  If mapping is inline to the program (scattered), then problematic.

 

That's just what I see from 1000' view.

 

Beery

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2022 by 9640News

[Asmusr]

5 minutes ago, 9640News said:

Whether Rasmus would invest the effort, another story.

I have no knowledge about or interest in the Geneve, so I'm not going to invest much effort. But I think it would be interesting to see a game of mine run on a Geneve, and I'm surprised that nobody has attempted it before.

 

I have pushed the code to https://github.com/Rasmus-M/pinball-99. If you want to continue discussing this, I would appreciate if you do it in another thread.

 

[fabrice montupet]

I'm impressed!  Pinball 99 is absolutely great!

Works fine on the TIny-99/4Av3 (v9958 VDP) in turbo mode or not.

 

[PeBo]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:45 PM, Asmusr said:

Here's the first beta version of Pinball 99.

"WOW!" and "Thank You!", at this point, are just SO inadequate.

[PeBo]

Love the string-twang effect in the title tune. I've never heard that effect on a 4A.

Also, the table is such a loving homage to both the past and present TI enthusiast community.

 

I can play it with friends, but only a TI person will "get it"...

 

Bouncy, Skyway, Obstacle Course, and now Pinball 99.

Thanks for letting us play with your balls Monsieur Moustgaard.

[globeron]

Fantastic game and amazing what this TI-99/4A can do  (and that from starting with "Bouncing Ball" in the TI-BASIC manual when people bought the TI).

I am already looking forward what's up next !

 

* I did some runs on Classic99, real TI-99/4A F18A upgraded and Batocera using the .rpk of @mizapf all works in 1 go.

 

 

Some feedback:

* the screen background can it change to red?  (now it is white), because my displays have a border.

* I noticed that the high score not always remain after a higher score was achieved it kept the old score, but sometimes it updated it.

* same experience like Ciro: the ball went through the right flip (it happened when it was going very fast)

* same comment as Save2600: Ball action down by the flippers a little too bouncy. And the gap where the flippers meet the return

   lane causes adverse ball action at times. Ball action should be a little more dead and relatively smooth so it doesn't take a funny hop in those spots. 

   I want to keep the ball in the corner while holding the flipper in up position, then slowly shoot.

* at the top, it feels that the ball comes too often at the T of TI99

* The ball exit, maybe the ball should disappear from the screen, before shooting a new one.

* speech, love it, but it seems I only hear it in the beginning (or volume as people mentioned)

 

 

 

* Multiple tables, then it becomes a bit similar like "MS-DOS Pinball Fantasies"  --  

 

 

 

 

There is a Future Pinball program, that can load different tables, but it also has an editor.

If we copy the images, templates in this program, then we can see how the ball bounces here.

 

Not sure if Speech is supported, but I guess you can add .mp4 files.

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by globeron

[globeron]

 

Just played on the Batocera (mame engine with .rpk).  91,220 score  (high score was updated), but I just waited a few loops to see the high score,

but seems to hang (music keeps playing and the stars keep flashing), but keyboard does not react.  Could be mame related, but will try to see if

the same happens with a real TI (and will only report issues with real TI moving onwards). 

 

* Reached the "Parsec" level (by shooting a few times in that lane),  but each time it is up, then the ball seems to be stuck and slowly moves back in the direction of Parsec and falls back.

 

 

o

[Asmusr]

On 5/26/2022 at 11:58 PM, ti99iuc said:

I have tried it a bit on my TI99 and maybe the speech result a bit low as volume compared to the music but I am not sure if it is a my problem only on the real machine.

 

On 5/27/2022 at 12:07 AM, save2600 said:

Agree about the speech being a little low in volume. Love the speech, sound effects, in-game and game over music! 

 

On 6/5/2022 at 6:51 AM, globeron said:

* speech, love it, but it seems I only hear it in the beginning (or volume as people mentioned)

I'm not sure what to do to increase the speech volume, except relatively by lowering the music volume, which would make the music less dynamic. I have already increased the volume of the samples I converted using Python Wizard to the maximum possible without clipping. Is it a general issue that speech is lower than PSG sound? Can you hear the speech clearly in Alpiner while the music is playing?