Author Topic: An Evening At The Arcade - Eight Ball Deluxe  (Read 5896 times)

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Offline Pintrepid

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An Evening At The Arcade - Eight Ball Deluxe
« on: December 23, 2012, 01:29:46 AM »
Today I just took the time and played a lil' FS B2S Visual Pinball on my ol' XP Desktop.

While I haven't gone and built me a cab yet, these two 'puter screens, a 4:3 17" screen for the BG, and a 20" WS for the PF, give me all the functionality of a complete pinball table as they are. The PF is rotated 90º CW. It fits in to a slot at the bottom, where there's a fold in the table I'm using, and rests against the BG monitor quite nicely. The BG monitor sits on top of a small box which raises it up about 6". This gives the PF about a 25º angle with a an active B2S BG above that.

The beauty of having this two screen setup like this is that the PF can be rotated back to normal on demand. After all, I'm supposed to be WORKING and trying to earn a few $$$ here.  ::) The large screen is great for Photoshop and Illustrator, or, when I'm editing code, enlarging it so that I can READ it! So here I have a FS B2S Pinball Arcade / Grahpics Studio all in one.

Gameplay is enhanced by a Bose sound system with two speakers spread wide behind the screens, and a deep-throated subwoofer underneath the table. *-Whooooops!-* Gotta turn that down, can't piss off the landlord!  ;)

Eight Ball Deluxe came out in '84, which is a little after my Arcade Days, so I never got to play this one IRL. But it has the look and feel of a typical Bally/Midway table 'round about the time that Midway bought out Bally. The table has a lot of the sounds of a typical SS Bally of that time. It also has that strange Fathom-like voice here and there. IMHO, this kinda detracts from the game. The pool-theme translates well to pinball, but that strange voice just doesn't fit this table. Ewwww  :-[

As for the FS B2S version, OxACE did an excellent job converting JPSalas' orig design to FS B2S. The BG is a pleasure to glance up to and check my score as I'm playing, and the art on there is very nice! The gameplay is fast, and knocking down those drop targets is fun. Just like regular Eight Ball, it's more fun to play 2 player, and light up ALL the balls in the PF.

Although this game has a good country, redneck feel to it, I find myself wanting to play the original Eight Ball, like Scapinos VP8 version. But there's not yet a version of Eight Ball in FS B2S ... hmmm .... might have to do something about.
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Offline Itchigo

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Re: An Evening At The Arcade - Eight Ball Deluxe
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2012, 02:14:51 PM »
Nice idea!! Should we do a separate section for this?
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Offline sleepy

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Re: An Evening At The Arcade - Eight Ball Deluxe
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2013, 04:30:32 AM »
Er, no. I know this game like the back of my heart and played it brand spankin' new in 1980.

http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=762

In 1984 Bally reissued a Limited Edition EBD, so that's probably why the VPinMame version states 1984. It is likely based on the limited edition version which differed slightly from the original version. Mostly, the backbox was the slim and wide box also used for *I think* Centaur. Bally had some of these in surplus, so they got rid of them by using them on the EBD reissue.

And Damn Right! If you are only talking about the annoying VPinMame voice, then I can't blame you. The Squawk and Talk decoder for the Bally voices has never been emulated correctly. Never. Not on EBD. Not on Centaur. Not on Flash Gordon. Not on a single Bally game, though Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man sounds the closest to the real machine voice.

BIG EDIT: But you know...I cranked it up just now and Damn Me, it is closer to the sound than not, so I dunno.

I must of had paper in my ears the last time I checked it!
But there are a couple of things that could be tweaked with the emulation.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2013, 06:23:04 AM by sleepy »