Author Topic: Interview J.P. Salas  (Read 10414 times)

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Offline Itchigo

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Interview J.P. Salas
« on: October 17, 2012, 10:13:12 AM »
The man himself was gracious enough to answer some questions for us. Here's what was said.

Question1. What first got you hooked on VP?

I have always liked to play pinball, even if I was nearly 35 years without playing a table.
 But when I discovered VP in 2001 something awaken in me and it made me search for those pinball tables I played when I was a kid. But I'm afraid I only could remember a few of them. I played a few tables, but I soon forgot the program until 2005 when I "rediscovered" VP. At that time people were talking about to rebuild the Taxi table, but no one started with it. So I decided to take a look at how hard actually was to build a table. Without any clue about VP or VBScript I decided to make a VP table, and at the same time I found it was a good excuse to learn photoshop, which I didn't know anything either. The rest is history.
 

Question2. What programs do you use?

Actually I use very few programs to make a VP table.
For the images I use Photoshop.
For the sounds I use Sony's Sound Forge.
Sometimes other people sent me animations make with a 3D program, like the lamp in Totan which was made by Michael Gallo.
 

Question3. What was your favorite recreation to do?

Tough question  I like most of the tables I made. But Since AFM is my preferred table, then the one I really enjoyed making was the Attack & Revenge from Mars, which was a blend of the Attack from Mars and Revenge from Mars.
 

Question4. What was the easiest/hardest table to do?

The easiest? I'm not sure, but I made a few tables in less than a week  For example the Harlem Globetroters it only took 4 days  
The hardest was without a doubt the Elvira & the Party Monsters I made together with highrise. All those reels were a nightmare to get them working.
 
Question5. Name (in your opinion) the most underrated table that never took off (yours or anyone else's).

I know too little about real pinball to mention any table in particular. Nearly all the tables are new to me, and I don't know if someone is underrated. The only ones I hear people mention are the top tables, and there are hundreds we never hear anything about them.
 
Question6. What makes a "good table" in your eyes?

For me a "good" is a table were the ball is always in movement, no small games in the DMD, not too many holes were the ball will sit there while you watch animations in the DMD.
A good table, for me, it doesn't need to have complex rules, and they should be easy to remember or they should be easy to pick up by watching the playfield and the lights.
Also a good table should have some targets to shoot at, droptargets or normal targets. So there should be some skill involved.
Graphically it should not be over saturated, so you should clearly see the difference between the objects and the playfield. This is more true in VP than in real life.
 
Question7. What is the biggest mistake that new builders make?

Actually you can't make many mistakes in VP, but you can build things that don't work as planned  A few examples are:
 - ramps built from the bottom and up, this is for example from 0 to 80, and the ball gets always stuck under it, and it doesn't matter what you do. The best is to divide those ramps in two: one from 0 to 50 and another from 50 to 80, then the ball won't get stuck anymore.
 - One of the errors I have seen in recent tables is the use of too many alpha ramps to do everything, and the table becomes unplayable.
 

Question8. What other authors do you admire and why?

There are many of them  But I'll name just a few of them which I consider them my "gurus", they have been around since the beginning of VP:
 - Randy: he made a simple program in 2000, which is still in use in 2012. How many programs from 2000 are you still using? He is not an author, he is the "author"  :-)
 - TAB & destruk: they use to build tables that are very faithfull to the originals. Maybe they are not the most impressive graphically. But if you are in doubt how a table should work, then just take a look at their tables  Any of their tables are perfect examples to learn how to integrate vpinmame and VP. They are really good to new builders.
 - Eala Dubh Sidhe: any his tables, both simulations and originals, are masterpieces.
 - Scapino: he used to make the most beautiful tables by using of reels. A technique that involved to make the tables in a 3D program and then cut the images in pieces and put them together on the table. That's an incredible amount of work and patience.
 - Black: if you have taken a look at his scripts then you'll know why I admire him
 - Pacdude: I learned a lot from his tables, and his fading light system is the one I use in my tables.
 
I admire many other authors for all of what they can do that I can't, like scripting (for ex. GreyWolf to name just one), 3D building (for ex. Neoblood, just look at his cannons in his mod of STTNG), drawing (Grizz, hassanchop ++),
I admire also many of the authors of original tables for their imagination and design fantasy in building new tables.
And also I admire new authors for their interest in learning such an old program, and for what they accomplish in record time.
 

Question9. Why the Papa Smurf logo?

Well, people say that I look like Papa Smurf, the only difference was the spectacles  And it was Mr.Pacman who made the avatar for me, and I liked, so I adopted it as my logo  Now I don't use spectacles anymore, but I still use the avatar  :-)
 

Question10. What advice would you give to new builders?

Take a look at the older tables, see how they are built. Just tear them apart.
And, of course, read the manual Wizards Hat made, it will answer most of the questions a novice may have
 
Question11. Have you ever talked to Randy Davis?

No, never.
 
Question12. What would be the single most important thing to update/fix in VP?

In my opinion VP912 needs two things: layers and support for an extra monitor. Both can be achieved with the current build, and it shouldn't be too difficult to implement. I always wish for small things, like one day someone at work asked me if you met a genius and you had just one wish what would you wish? And I said a cup of chocolate, and he said but why don't you wish something bigger. And later during a break I met him close to the coffee machine, and I had a cup of chocolate, and I told him "you see I got my wish fulfilled!"  

Thank you JP!
Tremble in fear! Behold my Bankai!


Offline unclewilly

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2012, 07:10:49 AM »
Nice interview itchgo.

The only thing i can say about jp,  he is probably one of the nicest people ive ever had the chance of talking with.
Always willing to help someone out.
I truely appreciate everything he does for our community

Offline Shooby Doo

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2012, 08:59:45 AM »
Nice interview! Thanks guys. :)

Offline Itchigo

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2012, 11:41:16 AM »
Thanks Shooby, I never really interviewed before so I hope I had good questions. In the works are Unclewilly, Grizz, and Osprey.
Tremble in fear! Behold my Bankai!


Offline unclewilly

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2012, 11:54:57 AM »
You should interview rascal as well.
He is a master ball manipulator. ;P

Seriously though, rascal has helped me a bunch with coding and inovations like the ball rolling script and ball reflections

Offline Itchigo

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2012, 10:17:36 PM »
Quote from: 'unclewilly' pid='27' dateline='1350579297'

You should interview rascal as well.
He is a master ball manipulator. ;P

Seriously though, rascal has helped me a bunch with coding and inovations like the ball rolling script and ball reflections


Rascal's on my list, as are Grizz, Hassanchop, Rosve, and Rukia.
Tremble in fear! Behold my Bankai!


Offline Rukia

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RE: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2012, 10:13:01 AM »
Yay, Rukia!

LOL
Love,
ME
:angel::heart:
Y'all behave yourselves or I'll have to smack ya's!

Offline User42

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Re: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #7 on: January 03, 2021, 10:41:34 AM »
Great interview. I love JP's tables.

Offline Pinball_Wolvi

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Re: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2021, 12:32:45 PM »
Thanks for the interview...nice to read. I also love his tables!

Offline Friel01

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Re: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2021, 08:22:57 PM »
I had not seen this before.  Great interview.  Love that this site has a category for them, I hope we see more In The future.

Offline fourbanks

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Re: Interview J.P. Salas
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2022, 04:04:41 PM »
jp is certainly one of the best. he's just done a complete rebuild for me of the table cyclone and dedicated it to me. that's incredible considering I've never met him. :Smile: