Visual Pinball
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Visual Pinball rendition of Bally's Fireball (1972) |
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| Developer(s) | Randy Davis |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 9.0.5 / December 27, 2009 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Pinball |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | http://www.vpforums.org/ |
Visual Pinball is a video game suite for Microsoft Windows that is composed of an editor and simulator. It can also work together with the emulator Visual PinMAME that emulate original ROMs. Visual Pinball's editor allows users to import external sounds and images to create recreations of real pinball machines and self-designed tables. Its simulator allows players to play these tables.
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[edit] Design
Every Visual Pinball table includes two main parts: the "physical" playfield design and the script which controls the table gameplay. The editor uses Microsoft VBScript for user programming. The game itself is written in C++ with the Active Template Library for making ActiveX controls.[1] Visual Pinball runs on Windows 98 or newer.
[edit] History
Visual Pinball was first released to the public on December 19, 2000 by programmer, Randy Davis.
In 2005, David R. Foley purchased the rights from Davis for modification of the suite for a full-sized pinball cabinet based on the Visual Pinball software.[2] Chicago Gaming purchased rights for licensed tables from Williams Electronics. The Visual PinMAME team and the Visual Pinball development community also joined in the effort to produce improvements to the suite product and a few tables. This project, known as UltraPin, was acquired by Global VR following the acquisition of certain assets UltraCade,[3] and was discontinued in 2008.
In 2008, NanoTech Entertainment acquired the rights from Davis for the use & distribution of the engine for inclusion with its Pinball Wizard PC Controller. NanoTech also released Version 9 of the engine featuring many updates that had been developed between 2005 and 2008. Version 9 of Visual Pinball has some major improvements but not full backward compatibility therefore some older tables still need version 8 to run properly.
[edit] Visual PinMAME
Modern pinball machines (especially those made after 1992 and using DMD animations) usually require the Visual PinMAME (VPinMAME) program in order to work. VPinMAME adds to Visual Pinball's system requirements and, like other MAMEs, uses image files of the actual ROMs from the physical pinball machines, executing them as simulations of the embedded CPUs, sound chips, and displays from the physical machines.
Visual PinMAME is a program (a COM class) that works in combination with Visual Pinball (or in theory any other program that can make use of the COM class) that allows for 3D renderings of actual pinball table designs. Specifically, Visual PinMAME is for emulating CPUs and the connected ROMs used in modern pinball tables, as opposed to tables with solid-state electronics/electro-mechanical mechanisms that contain no ROMs or advanced ICs in their hardware design. Visual PinMAME displays the LEDs and/or DMD of the machines in a separate window and also delivers emulation of the integrated sound chips. In order for Visual PinMAME to work properly with a rendered pinball table, it requires that table's ROM images. Without VPinMAME, Visual Pinball can be used to make original pinball and pinball-like games (such as pitch-and-bat baseball, pinball bingo, and pachinko).
Visual PinMAME was written by the team of programmers including Steve Ellenoff, Tom Haukap, Martin Adrian, and Gerrit Volkenborn and was started March 30, 2001. The program is named after the original MAME program for emulating arcade games. Visual PinMAME runs on top of the PinMAME software engine which again uses some parts of the MAME core. Visual PinMAME is written in C++ programming language.
[edit] Recreation and original games
As well as the games using original ROM images, Visual Pinball has long supported a community of individuals that create PC pinball simulations without using such ROMS. These include both ROM-less recreations like those found at IRPinball, and completely original works or original pinballs based on licenced themes such as those found at Pinball Originals.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Visual Pinball: Build Your Own Pinball Machine from DigitalPostProduction.com
- ^ UltraCade Licenses Visual Pinball from RetroBlast.com
- ^ Global VR to Purchase UltraCade Technologies from a web archive
